While I’m sure that campus cafeterias, like restaurants, are pretty good at estimating the amount of food they’ll need to cook on any given day, they’re always going to overshoot by some… and that means leftovers. Some of this food will no doubt find its way into other meals – remember “vegetable lasagna?” Some of it will get used by campus composting programs at various schools. A lot of it, of course, will get thrown away… and that’s a shame, because, likely, there are people near campus going hungry.
Campus Kitchen is an organization focused on recycling food waste from campus dining halls into meals for hungry people. Student volunteers at participating schools gather leftover food from the cafeterias and other establishments, reprocess it, and than deliver it to local shelters and soup kitchens. The video above takes a look at the Campus Kitchen group at the University of Kentucky, and how it’s not only feeding the hungry in Lexington, but also inspiring student participants to consider lifelong commitments to addressing food insecurity.
Is your school one of 42 with a Campus Kitchen chapter? Share your stories with us, or tell us about other efforts to turn “waste food” into meals for people who might otherwise go without.
Featured image credit: University of Kentucky