About the Campus Kitchen

• Strengthen Bodies by using existing resources to meet hunger and nutritional needs in our community; 
• Empower Minds by providing leadership and service-learning opportunities to students, and educational benefits to adults, seniors, children, and families; and 
• Build Communities by fostering a new generation of community-minded adults through resourceful and mutually beneficial partnerships among students, social service agencies, businesses and schools.

• Rescue:  Campus Kitchens rescues prepared, but unserved food, from Dining Services at Gettysburg College, local hotels, restaurants and caterers.
• Repackage: The food is repackaged and combined with additional foods procured through food drives, local farmers and the food bank, resulting in a well-balanced, nutritious meal. This process requires the highest standards of safety and sanitation. 
• Deliver: Congregate and individual meals are delivered through partner agencies on a weekly basis. The delivery is accompanied by a visit, strengthening relationships in the community.
• Education: Meals and partnerships are coupled with nutrition education and to empower community members.

For Children
During the summer of 2008, the Campus Kitchen worked with Painted Turtle Farm at Gettysburg College and The Center/El Centro on a children’s summer camp based on nutrition and environmental education.  Campers planted their own garden, learned about organic farming, the new Food Guide Pyramid, and got to experience hands-on what added fats and sugars look like in foods and beverages.  They even planned and prepared dishes to serve at their end-of-summer picnic.

Last fall, Megan Crowe ’10, Nutrition Program Coordinator for the Campus Kitchen, further developed the GREEN GOODIES program for the Lincoln Elementary Afterschool Program (LEAP) to include an emphasis on how people in the community get food and where that food comes from. All aspects of the lessons were brought together under the unifying theme of food justice. At the culmination of the program, students visited the Gettysburg Senior Center where they prepared a nutritious snack with the seniors. The Campus Kitchen is working with the LEAP program again this semester.

For Families
The Campus Kitchen is also coordinating a Healthy Cooking on a Budget and Exercise program, funded by a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day grant, for families of the Adams County Circles Initiative this semester. The program involves nutritional and exercise goal setting, a grocery store tour with a nutritionist, a session with a local chef focused on cooking healthfully and affordably with your children, and group exercise sessions.

For Seniors
Since the spring of 2008, the Campus Kitchen has worked with the Adams County Office for Aging on the Cooking and Entertainment for All Ages program, where biweekly dinners complete with entertainment are held at the Gettysburg Senior Center. Thanks to a grant from DOROT USA, several sessions focusing on nutrition are being held in conjunction with this program. In February 2009, Chefs from the Gettysburg Hotel were on hand to lead a cooking demonstration. Sessions on nutrition for diabetes, canning, and container gardening are also planned.