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Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee Wins Grant to Address Rural Hunger

“The grant focus on rural outreach is a perfect match to our local community. CKWL is thrilled to receive funding to support increased access to food and nutrition education.”

The Campus Kitchens Project, the leading national nonprofit empowering students to fight hunger and food waste, today announced that five schools in the national Campus Kitchens network will each receive $3,000 to address rural hunger in their community. The sub-grants totaling $15,000 are sponsored by CoBank.

The Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee University launched in 2006 and was the tenth Campus Kitchen to join the growing national network. At Campus Kitchens across the country, students lead efforts to combat food waste and hunger by collecting surplus food from on-campus dining halls, community gardens, restaurants, and grocery stores and transforming it into healthy meals.

The $3,000 sub-grant from CoBank will support student volunteers with the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee University to improve and provide additional services to three mobile food pantries, establish a food shelf in partnership with the Agriculture Business classes at Rockbridge County High School and conduct nutrition education workshops at Maury River Middle School’s afterschool enrichment program.

The 2017 cohort of five Campus Kitchens who will be part of the CoBank Rural Hunger Outreach Network are:

Elon University (CKEU) – Elon, NC
Lindsey Wilson College (CKLWC) – Columbia, KY
Saint Lawrence University (CKSLAW) – Canton, NY
Troy University (CKTROY) – Troy, AL
Washington and Lee (CKWL) – Lexington, VA

Every Campus Kitchen in the CoBank Rural Hunger Outreach Network will utilize innovative strategies to address rural hunger in their community.

“The grant focus on rural outreach is a perfect match to our local community. CKWL is thrilled to receive funding to support increased access to food and nutrition education” said Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee Coordinator Jenny Davidson.

In the last academic year, student volunteers with The Campus Kitchens Project recovered more than 1.3 million pounds of wasted food and served nearly 350,000 meals to those in need.