The Campus Kitchen at UMass Boston Blog

Happy Kitchen Shift Tuesday! At 4:30pm today, some lovely volunteers & I will be putting together the first meals for CKUMB. This is an exciting day! However, today didn’t happen without some challenges getting in the way. I’d like to take the chance to share these with you to prove that no matter how daunting something may appear, you can get through it with a little help from 1. your boss who supports you, 2. a wonderful company who was willing to sacrifice their rigid policies to assist a great cause, and 3. chocolate.

First, a little background: in order to bring a Campus Kitchen to life, a contract must be signed by multiple parties acknowledging each other. Essentially, the contractual language is boring and legal (blah, blah, blah) and states that if someone on my Leadership Team chops off part of a digit, who would be liable in that situation, etc. It’s important. It’s boring. It’s not ready. Because it isn’t ready, we can’t get into the kitchen here on campus quite yet. This begs the question: how will we supply the meals we promised to the Early Learning Center – East?

Panic! I’ve promised the sweetest, most patient and dedicated woman on the planet at ELC-East meals for several families this week. I have to deliver on this! ELC-East is our first community partner and if I pull out during our first week of service, they won’t want to work with us! Cue me panicking; I’ll edit out the actual scenario, but it involved sweating, yelling at strangers, and chugging Diet Coke — I’m not nice under dire circumstances. Through a divine miracle, the Director of The Campus Kitchens Project, Ms. Maureen-the-savior-, steps in. She suggests I decide on a cold meal or a grocery bag with ingredients for a recipe. Initially, I want to make something, so I’m swaying toward sandwiches or something similar. Usually, once I make up my mind, I stick to my choice. I don’t flubber around. No m’am. So, I’m gung-ho sandwiches. Crisis mode over! Until I realize that we 1. don’t have equipment to store cold goods in, 2. don’t have delivery bags to keep our cold food cold during transit, and 3. I don’t have a “budget” for groceries.

Panic! Do I change my mind? Can we order what I need with such short notice? I’m flubbering! Who am I?

Interject — much Diet Coke & chocolate is consumed. Please note that I am on a fit-into-your-wedding-dress diet and will need to run for 1.5 years to work off these calories. Please resume your normal reading. Thank you.

So, I decided to change my mind and put together grocery bags. Decision #2. Still, how do I get the funding for such groceries? Ms. Maureen saves the day again. I call several local warehouses to get denied over and over again until one finally approves of my situation. Despite their no-card, no payment and no member, no help policies, they took me in, gave me a membership, and helped me find everything I need. I did call Maureen one final time while shopping to put together a healthy meal that she suggested.

Relief. Today, I need to find physical bags to put these groceries in, but overall, I’m feeling pretty darn good. We’re going to deliver a delicious & surprisingly healthy recipe (Creamy Chicken Casserole) that makes enough servings for each family to have leftovers. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with the volunteers who are coming to make these bags sparkle & shine. To make today better, my whiteboard was finally hung and I put up our schedule, check it out!

I guess I’ll start running now…

The week is ending and so is my time only talking about shifts. Next week, we are going to be a fully operational Campus Kitchen! I’m thrilled to start executing policies and procedures I’ve only read about; I’ve been told that the paperwork will make more sense once we’re in the kitchen and on site. I sure hope so.

I’m trying to be as prepared as possible for the unknown. My volunteers are lined up, my shift paperwork is in order, and I’ve drafted an initial e-mails to my brave students about every little detail I can think to include for the shifts. My pins are lined up, I just need to knock ‘em down. It’s a waiting game now…

Meanwhile, we have the food drive happening. It’s been slow to start (as many new programs are on campus), but I’m hopeful that after the student e-blast is sent out, I’ll have more success. Perhaps this is a campus where food drives don’t work? Any suggestions? (Our donation boxes are really cute — look for them in an upcoming post!)

This afternoon, I’m supposed to meet with several local grocers about food recovery. Despite the many applications to fill out, it’s a chance for me to be in the community and showcase what CKUMB does. I’m pretty excited about it.

Don’t forget to bring in your canned goods for the food drive & have a great weekend!

Today marks a day in my professional life, a day to be revered and blogged about… the day I became (drum roll please) someone’s boss. I officially hired a work study intern (two, in fact!) to help out with the efforts of the Campus Kitchen at UMass Boston. Say hello to Tinesha (don’t worry, Jordan, she signed the waiver): Hey Tinesha!

Tinesha is going to be instrumental in food recovery efforts and she and I are working on the Food Drive this week. She’s already come up with a comprehensive list of faculty who would be willing to let her speak in their classrooms about what CKUMB is and how the students can participate.

This morning, I spent the majority of my time working on a flyer. Usually, my flyers are done in Microsoft Word, but I’d like to think I went above and beyond today. Check out the flyer I made for our Food Drive (I’m very proud of my handy work):

Look What I Made!

Okay, it’s back to work study “bossing” and hanging with the Jumpstart volunteers. They are wonderful students who are with me for the next three days to recover food, hang flyers, and create publicity. I’m pretty thrilled I get to keep them all week.

TGIF! I love the feeling of Fridays, no other day has it. It holds the promise of the weekend: the one night of the week that doesn’t linger on an early morning, the relaxed vibe, the “jeans on Friday” policy, etc. This is especially true on a college campus and I just love it. Know what I mean?

There’s so much to talk about today! We’ll begin with the event yesterday. Despite rescheduling due to a lame duck of a snowstorm, we had a decent turnout of really engaged students at our Kick Off Event (Part I, Part Deux is to follow in April, so stay tuned). Sherrod Williams, Director of Student Leadership and Community Engagement, welcome this initiative to campus. He’s here:

Jordan Kough, National Programs Manager and my lovely boss, talked about the specifics of CKUMB and what other Campus Kitchens do to promote themselves. Check them out:

We asked the students to come up ideas for what they want CKUMB to look like and how it can grow. It was beneficial to hear what students are interested in and we took away many ideas that I hope to infuse into CKUMB in the future.

Today, during our first Leadership Team meeting, we decided to host a food drive next week on campus to start our food recovery efforts! Keep an eye out for boxes marked with “CKUMB” logos next week and put a can in it!

Lastly, we’ve finally set our beginning shifts:

• Cooking shifts will be on Tuesdays @ 4:30-6:30
• Delivery shifts will be on Wednesdays & Thursdays @ 2:30-5:30

We’ll begin shifts the week of February 22nd and continue them through the end of the semester. Contact me if you’re interested in volunteering (cgoulart@campuskitchens.org).

Have a great Friday & Happy Valentine’s Weekend!

The Campus Kitchen at UMass Boston is underway with a scheduled Kick Off Event for February 10th and our first kitchen shift to follow on Thursday or Friday. I’ve begun recruiting and it seems like I’ll have a steady flow of volunteers. Leadership Team members are another story — how do you recruit quality leadership from students who are already too extended? I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

This video explains what The Campus Kitchens Project is all about. Watch & learn.