Guest written by Campus Kitchen student leaders
Campus Kitchen has seen a change of leadership in spring semester. We said goodbye to Cally Wilken, a founding member of the organization, and Celeste Coughlin, an exceptional grant-writer and organizer. Thomas Zeedyk, a Cox Scholar and a freshman, has assumed a leadership role as a Program Assistant, joined by Emma Bartolo, a sophomore, and Don Donduk, a graduate student. Thomas studies accounting and finance at the Kelley School of Business. Emma is pursuing a major in International studies in the Hamilton-Lugar School, and a minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies with a focus on Sustainable Food Systems in the College. Donduk is pursuing a Ph.D. in Geography and a regional focus on Central Eurasian Studies.
Campus Kitchen has continued to address food insecurity among IU’s students this spring. Early in the pandemic, the organization pivoted to a Campus Supported Agriculture (CSA) model to meet the demands of students whose primary residence was off-campus. Aided by two sizeable grants from the IU Student Government and the Metz Philanthropic Opportunity Fund, Campus Kitchen was able to distribute 187 meals to students by organizing 6 CSA Box events. Based on the mission of the organization, all our food boxes are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis. We serve students across Bloomington by offering both pick-up and delivery.
The boxes were organized along themes with a recipe accompanying locally sourced ingredients as well as staple pantry items, recipe suggestions, and cooking tips. Among the themes were: an Asian-inspired box that contained food such as pork sausage, rice, and soy sauce, and an Italian-themed box that contained pork sausage, collard greens, and tomatoes.
Spring 2022 proved challenging; wet and unseasonably cold weather decreased local produce availability. We had to be creative to support our local farmers and be able to provide nutritious food options to students. We managed to get plenty of pork sausage, potatoes and leafy vegetables from farmers at the local farmers’ markets but had to substitute with rice, spices and other staples from our local food businesses.
We hope to pivot to our original mission in fall 2022: addressing food waste at IU by collaborating with IU Dining to repurpose and redistribute food to students in need. In the meantime, we wish everyone success in their last few weeks of this semester and we will see everyone back on campus in August 2022!
To stay up to date on Campus Kitchen events in the future, visit our Instagram page @campuskitcheniu or their Facebook page. If you would like to be part of our organization, request to be added via our beINVOLVED student roster.
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