By Gillian Taylor | Staff Writer
The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down student organization Campus Kitchen’s aim to use existing resources to meet hunger and nutritional needs.
Denver sophomore and vice president of Campus Kitchen Emma Monark said the mission of the club is to recover food that would be thrown away and turn it into meals.
However, Amarillo senior and president of Campus Kitchen Katherine Boykin said that since the start of the pandemic, the club has not been able to restart its dining hall recovery operations.
Monark said Aramark, a company Baylor partners with for its dining hall needs, has very strict policies on the quality of food that can be served to students. This often leads to food that is still edible being thrown out as waste. Campus Kitchen capitalizes on this food waste and turns the food into meals before they expire.
The club, however, has “lost contact” with the dining halls during the pandemic because they didn’t have enough members to safely donate food, Boykin said.
Monark said the club hopes to rekindle its partnership with the dining halls in the future. In order to do this, she said the club needs to have an increase in participation.
“Not having enough manpower means we can’t get the food to the place it needs to go to on time,” Monark said. “We have to have packaging that keeps [the food] at a certain temperature, or else places can’t take it because it’s considered not edible.”
In the past, Campus Kitchen has recovered food from East Village Dining Commons and 1845 at Memorial and had to complete safety protocols before they transported it to the Salvation Army, Boykin said.
According to Monark, recovered meals are donated back to students during “Monday Night Meals” — an event in which students can get a hot meal for free at the Sid Richardson Building. She also said the club gives back to the Waco community on Tuesdays by donating meals to Mission Waco.
Monark also said the Baylor chapter is not the only one that has been struggling. Campus Kitchen organizations are beginning to shut down nationwide.
The organization has also had problems regarding its garden at Browning Square Apartment Complex. Monark said the beds of the garden were originally made from wood and were beginning to rot. To combat this issue, the club began to update the wooden beds with cement last year. The next challenge it faced was getting enough soil to fill the garden beds.
“We will need truckloads of soil,” Monark said. “So we’re going through the process now of asking for permission and paying for the soil, because it’s not cheap. We’re hoping to get it done so we can start planting seedlings.”
Monark said they are hoping to plant a few different crops in the spring so they can harvest next fall.
Kingsbury senior and kitchen manager for Campus Kitchen Nick Flinn said the club focuses on growing “root vegetables” because they are more capable of growing through the winter months.
Monark said the food from the garden is typically donated to various partners, including The Cove and the Salvation Army. Campus Kitchen also hosts an event in the spring called “Garden to Table,” in which they take produce from the garden and create a meal for all their members and partners in the community.
Flinn said besides being an organization that helps people in need, members get the opportunity to learn a variety of skills.
“You get leadership opportunities as you’re being part of this team,” Flinn said. “You get to learn culinary skills or some gardening skills as you are helping the overall pursuit of fighting food insecurity.”
Monark said she will be taking over the role of club president after Boykin graduates this semester. She said she is excited and hopeful to grow and reconnect with community members so that Campus Kitchen can continue to further dining hall sustainability and provide fresh produce to Baylor and others in the Waco community.
