A Merit Badge to End Hunger

By diverting excess food and leftovers from the camp dining service, the CulinArt dining services team at Camp Winacka served more than 18,000 meals to the hungry by the end of the summer season.

The surplus food from the 250+ meals served daily at the Girl Scout camp in the mountains northeast of San Diego was recovered from the extra serving trays held at safe serving temperatures. “All food was prepared from scratch,” says Rachid Lahik, regional culinary director for CulinArt. “To ensure it was suitable for donation, we maintained food safety before making the donations.”

When the camp opened, Lahik directed staff to set aside various food items for placement into pre-shipped Hunger Kits, provided by Chefs to End Hunger to streamline the donation delivery process. Chefs to End Hunger facilitates the redistribution of prepared food from hotel, restaurant and other food service customers to local charitable organizations. It helps empower chefs to join in on the fight to end hunger by making it easy to repurpose food and resources and make a real impact on a daily basis. Once filled, the 35-pound kits were picked up by Vesta Foodservice, the organization’s founder and primary logistical partner.

“Having the Girls Scouts of San Diego as a partner has been a great experience,” Lahik says. “We have been focused on food quality and safety, constantly evolving our three-week menu based on feedback from the Program Director and campers. I am happy to have been able to connect the Girl Scouts with Chefs to End Hunger and this great cause to reallocate all our leftover food to communities in need.”