The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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  • Campus Kitchens volunteer Danny Miller (left) helps Laura Anderson (center) and Hilary Stevens deliver meals to the ECHO Food Shelf Wednesday afternoon. Pat Christman

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November 14, 2010

Campus Kitchen program going strong

Coordinator says program has passed 50,000 meal point

By Robb Murray Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO — A year ago, the smart money was on the Campus Kitchen program not surviving, of it being just another program to fall victim to shrinking budgets and tough economic times.

Well, turns out Campus Kitchen beat the odds. Not only is it still here, but it’s thriving. Got more volunteers than they need. Partners across town and across campus are keeping it vibrant and relevant.

And now the program that at one point had an uncertain future is plowing full steam ahead on a mission to feed the community.

“We passed the 50,000 meal point this summer,” said Denise Billington-Just, who began her work at MSU as the Campus Kitchen Coordinator, but whose title now includes the phrase “community engagement.”

MSU’s Campus Kitchen is a local branch of a national movement. The program takes prepared but not served food and rescues it from being thrown away. It then distributes that food to wherever it’s needed in the community.

Billington-Just took over last spring, and at that point, the program had sort of stalled. It had been without a director for several months, another employee in the same department had been laid off.

But in the meantime, partnerships have sprouted up, most notably with MSU’s College of Business.

“They have really just taken the ball and run with it,” Billington-Just said.

The College of Business has always been involved, but now their involvement has been more purposeful.

They’ve been coordinating volunteers, organized a 5K run this weekend in North Mankato and sponsored food drives, among other things.

“It’s a collaborative force,” Billington-Just said. “It’s all about how we can help each other.”

Campus Kitchen, in its initial years, got nearly all of its food from the campus cafeterias. But over the years the program has steadily increased the amount of food it rescues off campus.

Today Applewood, Red Lobster, Sam’s Club, Long John Silver and Chipotle contribute to the program.

In fact, the off-campus contributors have been more important than ever.

As the university’s enrollment has grown, Billington-Just said, the amount of food Campus Kitchen gets from the residence hall cafeterias has decreased dramatically.

What hasn’t decreased is the support the program gets from Sodexho, the university’s food service provider.

Sodexho recently sponsored a food drive across campus that encouraged departments and offices to bring in non-perishable food items or make cash donations to the Campus Kitchen program.

And last week, Sodexho held a chili cook-off in the student union to raise money.

“We’re not just a food service,” said Phil Novak, marketing manager for Sodexho. “We’re also part of the community.”

Novak said a previous Sodexho food drive collected 7,000 pounds of food and they hoped to repeat that this year.

This week is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. All week Campus Kitchen will have a presence in the lower level of Centennial Student Union to educate people about the work they do and how they can get involved.

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