Our Crowdfunding Groups
One in eight people in the United States struggle with food insecurity, meaning they lack regular access to enough quality, nutritious food to maintain a healthy lifestyle. But while people across our country go to bed hungry, 40% of all food goes to waste in the United States. Here's where the Campus Kitchen at Virginia Tech comes in: we are a student-run VT Engage program that combats hunger and food waste by redirecting quality, unused food from Virginia Tech Dining Services to area hunger relief agencies.
Our dedicated student volunteers make Campus Kitchen happen each day. These volunteers provide leadership in each part of the process, divert food in dining centers, deliver the food to community partners, participate in cooking shifts to create side dishes for our partners, and more. Our dream goal is to someday have a kitchen space of our own on campus. But until then, we use several spaces on campus to store food and equipment.
Since launching in fall 2015, more than 350 volunteers have served 8,500+ hours with Campus Kitchen, diverting 42,624 pounds of unused food from six dining centers for food insecure populations, but there is still more to do! As we work to expand into more dining centers and find new community partners, our resources to support our operations are being stretched. We need your help ensure we can continue to fulfill our mission to reduce food waste and reach more people in our community.
Your support will help us increase our operating funds for the 2017-18 academic year, enabling us to get more food to more people, purchase new equipment and supplies, develop new programs and partnerships, expand operations, send student leaders to conferences and trainings, and more. For as little as $5, you can help us live out Virginia Tech's motto Ut Prosim (That I May Serve.)
A $5 donation will provide five meals to Meals on Wheels clients through our dry meals initiative.
A $18 donation fills our gas tank for the week, making daily food deliveries possible.
A $35 donation will help us purchase supplies such as reusable food storage containers and thermometers to monitor food temperature.
A $54 donation will provide the required uniforms for our volunteers who commit to weekly shifts to divert surplus food.
A $75 donation can purchase five reusable pans to store and transport food, helping us further reduce waste.
A $128 donation can purchase two insulated bags, which we use daily to safely transport food to our partners.
A $600 donation will enable one of our student leaders to attend a training to build their leadership skills, as well as pay for their housing and food for a week.