Delivery Day

The final part of the TurkeyPalooza event was delivering the finished meals to our clients. The day of delivery, I found out that there were extra bags from the McKenna Center's Thanksgiving event that we could deliver to our clients in one location. Also, one of the art teachers at Gonzaga gave us Thanksgiving cards that we delivered to another location. These extra items made the event much bigger for the clients, which was something I was a little concerned about.


The bags contained many items that the clients could use to make their Thanksgiving meals even better.


The cards were a great way to engage the clients upon delivery. It gave the volunteers a way to talk with them moreso than usual.

Great success!

Preparing the Meals

On Monday, November 20th, we had the cooking shift to put the final touches on our Thanksgiving-themed meals. Thankfully, it wasn't too difficult since we spread out the work load over the previous week.


For the protein section, we had the turkey already prepared. For the vegetable portion, we used canned corn. For starch, we had either mashed potatoes or canned sweet potatoes. All we needed to provide was a dessert. To make the meals even more festive we used a surplus of canned pumpkin and graham cracker crust to make pumpkin bars.


This was a great activity that the volunteers seemed to really enjoy. After these were finished and cooled, our meals were complete and ready to go!

The next (and final) step was to deliver the meals to our clients.

Turkey Pull

On Saturday, November 18th we had the 2nd Annual Turkey Pull at Gonzaga College High School. At this event we carved the turkeys and pulled the meat off of the bones. The pieces of turkey were placed in a big container for the big TurkeyPalooza event.


The event was very fun and all of the volunteers seemed to enjoy the process. One of the more difficult aspects of this job has been ensuring that there are enough Gonzaga volunteers to show up on Saturdays. This event was about par for the course, with three in attendance out of the five volunteers that signed up. Regardless, we filled an entire pan to the brim with turkey in less than two hours.


After finishing carving the turkeys, I saw the wishbone and couldn't help but think about Robert Egger's speech from the Student Leadership Conference. He spoke about the wishbone vs. the backbone, and how using each produced different results. If there's one definite of this entire TurkeyPalooza event, it's that it definitely requires the backbone (although the wishbone helps, too.)


After completion of the turkey carving, we were almost ready to deliver the meals. The next step was making desserts and packing them up.

Cooking Turkeys

In addition to the regular meals we made for our meal preparation shift, this past Thursday we also cooked eight turkeys for our big TurkeyPalooza event. Having never even attempted to cook a turkey before, this was a pretty big deal. There were four major steps to cooking the turkeys: 1.) defrosting 2.) cleaning 3.) seasoning 4.) cooling.

Getting things started.

Since they had been defrosting for a few days, the first step was to clean the turkeys. We had to remove the neck and giblets, which scared away some of the volunteers. The majority of volunteers weren't interested in having any part of this process, but one leadership team member stepped up to the plate.

Washing out the turkey.

After the turkeys were patted dry, the next step was to season them. We used poultry seasoning and oil and had the volunteers spread it all over the turkey. One mistake we made was not folding the leg under the bird prior to adding the oil. This made the leg very difficult to stay in place.

Seasoning the birds.

After all was said and done, it took about 8 hours to cook the turkeys, wait for them to cool, and then store them properly. The turkeys looked and smelled delicious.

Almost ready to eat!

Take Your Turkey to Work Day

7am turkey call.
Today we celebrated Take Your Turkey to Work Day at Gonzaga! It has been a smashing success so far as we've received more than the number of turkeys we were initially looking for.

Three tiers of turkey.
Here's to hoping that everything else during TurkeyPalooza runs as smoothly!

YouTube Turkey Video

Peel Sessions

Sign up board outside my office.
Today was the first day of actual preparation for TurkeyPalooza. We won't deliver the Thanksgiving-themed meals for another week, but it's important to start work on some projects as early as possible to make sure there isn't a time crunch towards the end.

During today's cooking shift, we had more volunteers than usual. I had the group of six split into two groups of three. One group did the normal food preparation while the other group peeled potatoes.

Peeling the potatoes
The work that went into this was pretty intense. The groups switched places once to keep everything from becoming stale and boring. Everyone seemed to be a good sport about the process and we finished an entire bag of potatoes in one shift.

Before and after...
The turkeys won't be dealt with until Thursday. In the meantime, they were defrosting on the sidelines. This week is sure to get very busy, so it will definitely be helpful to get simple jobs like peeling potatoes out of the way.

Almost turkey time.

Capital Food Fight

There's a nice preview of the Capital Food Fight, DC Central Kitchen's annual event, up now on DCist.com. They give the event some really nice exposure, especially by writing:

More than the food and networking, however, it's a great fundraiser for the Central Kitchen, which helps Washington's homeless community by providing both fresh food and job training for work in the food industry.

The big event takes place one week from tomorrow, and I've heard it's always a blast. For more information on the event, check out the official site.

TurkeyPalooza 2006

TurkeyPalooza... it has begun.

Saturday Shifts

One important part of running a Campus Kitchen is getting groups outside the school to help participate in the project. After all, the Campus Kitchen is intended to serve the community. At Gonzaga, one of the best ways to accomplish this is to have Saturday shifts with youths as volunteers.

This past Saturday, we had a group from Holy Trinity in Georgetown come to our campus and help with the meal preparation. Since the group was comprised of eighth-graders, the weekend is the only time they can come in to help.

The easiest way to get the kids interested in the experience is to have them prepare the desserts! On Saturday, we made raspberry swirl cake and bread pudding with raisins. The raspberry swirl cake is easy to make and something we've done a lot. This was the first time we've made bread pudding, though. We get a ton of bread and use it only for sandwhiches. By making pudding we can make of a lot more of the bread.

The end results!
After is was all said and done, the group seemed to really enjoy the experience. They're signed up for a delivery shift in December, so next time they'll be able to see where the food goes!

Conference Day 3

The following is a three part account of the CKP Student Leadership Conference. (Part 1 of the recap. Part 2 of the recap.) Click here for more first-hand accounts of the conference.

CKP National Conference Day 3
Date: October 7, 2006
Location: Gonzaga College High School, Rosemary's Thyme

Everyone met at Gonzaga College High School for breakfast around 8:30 am, and then went over to Cantwell Hall for the Breakout Sessions. These sessions were 40-minute lessons on various concepts related to the Campus Kitchens Project.

The three Breakout Sessions I attended were "Marketing the Campus Kitchen" with Karen Borchert, "Managing the Budget" with Glenda Cognevich, and "Culinary Job Training" with Becky Locker. All three of the Breakout Sessions taught me something I didn't know about the Campus Kitchens Project.

This format was very helpful for me to learn about topics that I knew little about. Only one of my Leadership Team members was able to attend these sessions, and it would have been nice if more of them were there.

After the Breakout Sessions, we had lunch in the Jesuit Dining Room. This was followed by a lengthy discussion about what everyone learned at the conference. For me personally, it was incredible to witness how similar every Campus Kitchen is. We all face similar problems and this conference opened my eyes. During this part of the day, all the schools split up to make a list of what they want to accomplish. There were three dates used as goals in this exercise: by next week, by Dec. 31st, by next conference. We also had to list what we were going to do for the local Campus Kitchen as well as the Campus Kitchens Project as a whole.

The CKGCHS Plan
We had a brief break before reconvening at Rosemary's Thyme restaurant on 18th Street. The food there was excellent and the company was exquisite. There, the annual awards were presented to distinguished volunteers. I was really impressed by all of the volunteers that won accolades. It was so inspiring to hear their stories that it made me want to do more.

(L-R: Brian, Sara, Rebecca, Peter, Will)
The final day of the conference was my favorite because it allowed for the most communication between Campus Kitchens. Hearing everyone talk about their kitchen made me realize how similar our causes are. In the same way Robert Egger is bringing together non-profits, we need to work together to achieve the ultimate goal of ending hunger in America.

Conference Day 2

The following is an account of the CKP Student Leadership conference. (Part 1 of the recap. Part 3 of the recap.) Click here for more first-hand accounts of the conference.

CKP National Conference Day 2
Date: October 6, 2006
Location: DC Central Kitchen, First Baptist Church, Gonzaga College High School

The second day of the conference began bright and early at DC Central Kitchen. We arrived at 6am, in the pouring rain, to begin volunteering in the kitchen. This cooking shift marked the 5th year anniversary to the day of the first ever Campus Kitchen cooking shift. Everyone wore their CKP 5th Year Anniversary t-shirts, and it was quite the sight to behold.

After a fantastic introductary speech by Becky, everyone got to work in a different section of the kitchen. I was placed at the vegetable station, cutting up celery and carrots. Cutting celery for three hours gave most of our team blisters on our cutting hands, but it was a small price to pay for such a worthy cause.

Celery boards and the celery team (L-R: Brian, Sara, Monica, Meaghan, James)

In addition to making the meals for DCCK's usual clients, we also made the meals for Gonzaga's delivery. The kitchen that we use at Gonzaga College High School is way too small to accomodate the more than 40 people that showed up for this cooking shift.

Following the cooking shift, DC Central Kitchen founder Robert Egger (Pictured Right) spoke with the group. Robert is one of the best speakers I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. The first time I ever heard him speak was at the 64th Graduation class of DC Central Kitchen's culinary job training course, and he keeps getting better ever time I hear him. The main aspect of his talk that I will remember is his analogy of the wishbone and the backbone. There are two bones one can cook with, the wishbone and the backbone. The wishbone will make thin soup, but the backbone will provide a full meal. In short, if you really want to start cooking, you're going to need the backbone.

After finishing up at DC Central Kitchen, the big group split in two. The leadership team members and volunteers stayed at the kitchen and worked on a new constitution, while the group of coordinators took the Metro over to the national office's building, the First Baptist Church.

While there, we had a cooking exercise taught by Barton Seaver (Pictured Left). Barton is the executive chef at two of D.C.'s finest restaurants, Bar Pilar and Café Saint-Ex. I thought it was fascinating that an accomplished chef who has travelled extensively around the world would be such a proponent of locally grown food. As his hat read, "No farms, no food." Barton brought a bunch of fresh, locally purchased, organic ingrediants for us to cook with. These included: tomatoes, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, vegetable oil, lemons, green beans, sausage, and bacon among many others.

After hearing Barton speak about the possible uses of all the fresh veggies, we split up into small groups and experimented with all the possibilities. Becky from CKP, Jen from Northwestern and I worked on a little dish with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and cheese.

When life hands you lemons...

... make delicious pasta! (L-R: Jen, Brian, Becky)

Following the cooking demonstration, we all sat down and ate lunch provided by California Tortilla. After that it was off to Gonzaga College High School for our usual Friday delivery shift, which went very well. Unfortunately, due to the rain the scheduled tour of the area was scrapped. There were three Gonzaga Leadership Team members that led three groups of volunteers to our locations. Because of our usual Friday food pickup, I wasn't able to go with them. I heard, however, that it was the highlight of the weekend for some of the volunteers.

After the delivery shift, there was some free time to explore Washington, D.C. and to prepare for the final day of the conference!

Conference Day 1

The following is a three part account of the CKP Student Leadership conference. (Part 2 of the recap. Part 3 of the recap.) Click here for more first-hand accounts of the conference.

CKP National Conference Day 1
Date: October 5, 2006
Locations: Gonzaga College High School, DC Central Kitchen

On the first day of the conference, the members from Campus Kitchen's across the nation converged at Gonzaga College High School. Coordinators and Leadership Team members from Saint Louis University, Northwestern Unitersity, Marquette University, Gonzaga University, Augsburg College, Minnesota State University at Mankato, Univeristy of Nebraska at Kearny and Wake Forest University all had people attend! It was really incredible to see so many people involved with the Campus Kitchens Project. It was also exciting to meet the people from possible future Campus Kitchens.

We had an orientation from 4-5pm where anyone interested received a tour of our campus. I had three members of our leadership team members take small groups around the grounds.

A tour of Gonzaga's campus.

Afterwards, we had speakers from Gonzaga, the McKenna Center, DC Central Kitchen and the Campus Kitchens Project's national office. Mike Curtin, the Chief Operation Officer at DCCK as well as a Gonzaga graduate, spoke with the 40 or so people in attendance.

Mike Curtin.

Following the speakers, we walked over to the DC Central Kitchen for a taste-testing. At all the different stations, they offered incredible food including pasta with sun dried tomatoes, spinach and cheese, and potstickers. The food is always delicious at the kitchen, and this time was no different!

Salad Station.
Starch Station. Vegetable Station with Becky and Brian.

Overall it was a fantastic first day! The speakers at Gonzaga and the taste-testing at DC Central Kitchen both gave the visitors a brief glimpse of what was to come. The day ended somewhat early, which was nice because we had to meet back at DC Central Kitchen the next day at 6 in the morning!

CKP National Conference

This weekend we're celebrating the 5th year of the Campus Kitchens Project!! The annual conference is in Washington, D.C., so a lot of the activities are on Gonzaga's campus.

Woohoo!
Check back this weekend for more information and pictures of the conference!

09.27.06: Nutrition Lesson

Yesterday was the first Nutrition Lesson offered by the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga College High School. This project was kick-started by Becky, who is working at the Campus Kitchen Project's National Office. We worked together to get everything going for the nutrition lesson. There were a couple bumps in the road on our journey, but we persevered and made the most of out everything.

Both Becky and myself put a lot of work into the event, and we were very nervous about how it would turn out. We went to one of our usual delivery locations, and instead of dropping off meals, we taught a group of children an educational and fun nutrition lesson. At the end, we provided them with a nutritious treat. We weren't sure how the lesson was going to go, but in the end it turned out fantastic! The lesson went better than I could have imagined.

Becky and Sean going over the food pyramid.

We had three volunteers show up, Sean, Jon, and Kevin. Before we went over to the location, the five of us finalized our game plan at the high school. The three volunteers were excellent about taking on the responsibility of teaching parts of the lesson. I was worried that they would just stand around, but they interacted with the students and went above and beyond my expectations. For future lessons, I'll try to get the volunteers more involved earlier and have a bigger say in what the lesson plan will be.

Crack team of volunteers.

The only downside of the lesson was that there were only six people present, short of the 15-20 people we expected. We would have loved to have more people, but with the smaller number we were able to make a bigger impact. Also, the children were all able to participate. All the kids had their say in the lesson, and everyone got a chance to speak up.

A few of the kids taking in the food pyramid.

Teaching the lesson was very fun. All of the students were interested and very active. They did as much talking as we did!

Becky's AWESOME postor of the Food Pyramid.

The lesson itself went very well. We had an ice-breaker in the beginning to get everyone talking. The three volunteers, Becky and myself all got a chance to teach part of the lesson. Our main goal was to inform about the food pyramid as well as stress the importance of eating breakfast. The kids knew a lot to begin with, and they were very eager to answer all our questions. At the end of the nutrition lesson, we had all the kids line up to make a healthy snack.

Students lining up to make their snack!

For the snack at the end of the lesson, we made Crunchy Granola Yogurt Parfaits. The ingredients for the treat included both plain and strawberry yogurt, crunchy granola, raisins, chocolate chips, and banana chips. The students were very creative in making their snacks, mixing and matching all the different ingredients.

It was so nice to see everyone enjoying their treats. One student even made an extra one to take up to his grandmother. This was an awesome end to an awesome lesson.

The fruits of our labor!

09.25.06: Cooking Shift

This week I decided to get more cooking and preparing involved in the cooking shift. For the last week or so we were depending too much on already prepared food. Like Ron at the McKenna Center said, I don't just want to complete a puzzle, I want to make the pieces as well. Since we have the time and the volunteers, we might as well make something!

Yesterday, we used the time during our shift to make ham sandwhiches for the child-friendly location. We had some already prepared sandwhiches from one of our donors, but decided to save those for Thursday and use the large donation of sliced ham we had. In addition to the ham, we cut up some lettuce and sliced some tomatoes to make them look delicious. We complemented the sandwhiches with fresh fruit and green beans to finalize the meal.

Mmmm... ham.
For the other locations, we used our time and resources to make a big salad. We had a lot of lettuce, cabbage, olives, cucumbers, carrots, crutons and pieces of chicken, so there was a lot to work with. This type of activity is really fun and easy for the volunteers to work on themselves.

You can make friends with salad.
All in all, it's a lot more fun for me and the volunteers when there is stuff to make. I'm definitely going to get more cooking (even if it's just making salads and sandwhiches) involved in all of the cooking shifts.

09.21.06: Meal Preparation Shift

Yesterday we had another cooking shift that went well. Not as much food to choose from as on Monday, but we still had good meals.

For the children at one location, we had pre-made sandwhiches and wraps. The wraps were very colorful and made the meals look great. We added mixed vegetables, mozzarella sticks and a small pastry.

Colorful wraps!

For one of the other options, we had heavenly barbeque meatballs, but nothing pefect to match with them. We didn't have sub rolls or pasta, so we left them alone and added rice as the starch. They got the same veggies and pastries as the other locations.

Meatballs from above!

Overall, it wasn't the best meal in terms of combination, but the food looked delicious. All of the student volunteers agreed that they would definitely eat the meals.

Done!

09.18.06: Meal Preparation Shift

Yesterday, we had a really great meal plan. A plethora of food came in so we had a ton of food to choose from.

Our meal plan for the day.
The meal plan for our child-friendly agency included a mini pepperoni pizza, salad, and fruit cup for dessert. For those that didn't receive pepperoni pizza, we added large chunks of chicken to the salad for their protein portion.

Meal for child-friendly location.

The meal plan for another location included pork, corn bread, salad and pudding. The alternate plan included chicken and shrimp paella as a substitute for pork. The clients at this place are predominately elderly, so we try to keep everything basic and include large portions of meat.

Meal for the other location.