MAKING MEALS

Campus Kitchens Project at ECU addresses food waste, hunger

A student-led project at East Carolina University is marking six years of addressing hunger locally.

ECU has the only Campus Kitchens program in the UNC system and the largest of four programs in the state.

“We’re still sustainable, and that’s the beauty of this project,” said Victoria Barfield, a graduate student in nutrition science and advisor for ECU Campus Kitchens Hot Meals.

Teams of students prepare nutritious meals consisting of a protein, vegetable, starch and dessert at Todd Dining Hall and deliver them on a rotating schedule to four community partners: Operation Sunshine, the Little Willie Center, JOY Soup Kitchen and the Ronald McDonald House.

While the dining hall donates the meat, most of the vegetables and fruit come from the annual ECU Homecoming canned food drive. More than 1,100 pounds of food were collected in the fall and will be used throughout the year, Barfield said.

At left, Brianna Harrington, a junior from Waxhaw, and Lekisha Pittman, a senior from High Point, prepare meals for Greenville children by volunteering with Campus Kitchen at ECU.

Student coordinators like shift leader Lekisha Pittman are the heart of the program.

Pittman said one of the biggest things she has learned through volunteering is that “hunger has no specific face,” she said. “You may have food today, but you may not have food tomorrow.”

Volunteering with Campus Kitchens also has influenced her career choice. She intended to major in nursing, but switched to family and community services with a concentration in family studies. “I want to do something that impacts hunger in the United States,” said Pittman, a senior from High Point.

Sometimes students will get involved because they need service hours for an organization. But once they’re in, they realize they want a more active role, said Jade Umberger, the nutrition outreach advisor for ECU Campus Kitchens who is in the middle of a yearlong service project with AmeriCorps VISTA.

“It means a lot to me,” said Pittman, who started volunteering with Campus Kitchens in 2014. “It’s great to give back to the community, and it’s shaped my future career goals.”

As one of 16 shift leaders, Pittman has completed Serv-Safe certification, National Restaurant Association food and beverage safety training that students can take into their professional lives after graduation, Umberger said.

“We’re trying to educate our students about hunger in North Carolina,” Umberger said. “There are 1 in 4 kids in North Carolina going hungry,” she said. In west Greenville, where she primarily works, there is limited access to fresh foods and vegetables, creating a food desert.

To address the gap, Campus Kitchens started a nutrition outreach program last summer that provides four nutrition lessons each month with children from the Little Willie Center and Operation Sunshine.

“It allows students to serve with people, not to people, to make it a positive relationship,” Umberger said. “I think both community and campus benefit.”

At Thanksgiving, Campus Kitchens planned a Turkey Palooza which resulted in enough donations to support all the families at Operation Sunshine and several more at the Lucille Gorham W. Intergenerational Community Center. Twenty-five families received a box complete with turkey and all the sides.

ECU’s Volunteer Service-Learning Center and Aramark opened ECU’s Campus Kitchen on Feb. 24, 2010. It’s one of 45 at schools across the country. Volunteers are always needed. Students can visit OrgSync for more information.