Social work students work on project to help the needy

Fort Worth, TX

2/6/2007

Michelle Nicoud, TCU Daily Skiff

From a young age, people are taught to help the needy. If approved at TCU, a project called Campus Kitchens would do just that.

Campus Kitchens, a student-initiated program currently at 11 universities, takes unused and donated food from universities and cooks it for a designated beneficiary for a minimum of three years, said Rick Flores, manager of Dining Services.

Schools with thriving Campus Kitchens projects include Marquette and Wake Forest. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Dillard University, in New Orleans, also hosted the program, Flores said.

Senior social work majors Lauren Love, Laura Hagadone, Heather Pruessner, Stephanie Sherwood and Quanesha Speed proposed the idea to dining services in Fall 2005 as part of a class assignment to address a social problem locally.

"We realized that food and people who were hungry in our community was a big issue that could be addressed by TCU," Love said.

Flores said the success of the program depends on the commitment of the student volunteers who start it. Dining services would only provide instruction on how to cook the food and space to prepare it, he said.

Some ways to promote the project on campus include encouraging Greeks to fulfill their service requirement through the program and asking professors of health-based classes such as nutrition or athletics for support, Hagadone said.

The faculty and Student Government Association support for Campus Kitchen exists, but space is the main obstacle, Hagadone said.

"The current dining facility is pretty small," Hagadone said. "They barely have enough room for all the things they need to do in the kitchen now, so we'd need to have more space."

Love said a Campus Kitchens manager from the national office told TCU in May it would be a feasible location once the new kitchen is built in Spring 2008.

"They definitely think we could house a program," Love said. "They would fund the program for three years, so we'd really need to develop a partnership with the national group."

Love said her group has discussed possible beneficiaries of the project, such as after-school programs and homeless shelters that do not offer meals.

If TCU gets a kitchen, Flores said, a national launch team would be sent out to supervise during its first weeks.

Love said she believes the premise of the program fulfills the university's mission statement "to be ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community."

"What better way to be responsible (citizens) than to be aware of the fact that we have plenty to eat here on this campus and others don't," she said.