MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Georgia Tech students fight hunger and food waste

By Clare S. Richie

e Campus Kitchen at Georgia Tech, a student-run organization that transforms surplus food from oncampus restaurants into healthy meals for Atlantans in need, is set to resume operations this month.

It’s part of e Campus Kitchens Project national network, which operates on 36 campuses including football rival University of Georgia. Since the network’s 2001 start, student volunteers recovered 3.7 million pounds of food and prepared 2.2 million meals.

“We are delighted that the Campus Kitchen at Georgia Tech is part of our growing national network,” said Laura Toscano, director of the project. “Georgia Tech students now have the opportunity to ght both hunger and food waste in Atlanta, while developing valuable leadership skills.” e Campus Kitchen at Georgia Tech has capacity to collect le over food from on-campus restaurants and food courts. By working with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, students also help identify food recipient partners like the Atlanta Mission.

It was the dedication of students, Sophia Rashid and Olivia Pan, over a two-year period that helped bring the Campus Kitchen to Georgia Tech. Today the two serve as student organization o cers, responsible for recruiting student volunteers to sta the kitchen. Grant Grimes, a dining services student intern when the planning started, also played a key role. Today post-graduation he is employed by dining services as a sustainability coordinator to provide oversight to the kitchen.

A er more than two years of planning among four university departments, student leaders, Sodexo, the local community, and the national nonpro t– it was a video competition last January that brought the project over the nish line. In just three weeks, Georgia Tech produced a video explaining why their community would bene t from a Campus Kitchen. e video captured the attention of the entire campus, receiving 5,000 votes from students and sta and winning $5,000 to help launch operations last spring.

“Due to the size of our operation at Georgia Tech, we can provide hundreds of meals per week to local shelters at no cost to them. We hope our kitchen will encourage the Georgia Tech population to become more involved in their community and help ful ll our motto of ‘progress and service,’” said Grant Grimes, Dining Services Sustainability Coordinator.

You can join the movement by referring an organization in need of meals or by making a donation. Contact Grant Grimes at grant.grimes@sodexo. com for more info.