The Campus Kitchen at Kent State University, part of a national food recovery effort to feed hungry families, will celebrate its grand opening with a public event Feb. 23 at 5 p.m. The event will take place in the Beall Hall cafeteria on the building's second floor, and will feature foods representative of those that will be prepared in The Campus Kitchen at Kent State. The university community is invited to the grand opening; no RSVP is required.

Chef Ed Hoegler leads a training for Campus Kitchen
volunteers in Beall Hall.

The Campus Kitchens Project is a national network of college campuses that recovers food items from cafeterias and events and prepares hot meals to feed the needy in local communities. There are approximately 30 Campus Kitchen sites in the United States; Kent State is the only college in Ohio chosen to participate in the project.

The Campus Kitchen at Kent State will recover food from cafeterias and community donations and engage students as volunteers who prepare and deliver meals to local feeding programs. The kitchens are entirely student run with students planning menus, collecting food, running cooking shifts and organizing meal delivery. Volunteers are trained in food recovery, safe food handling and learn basic cooking techniques.

The Campus Kitchen at Kent State will receive $15,000 from the national Campus Kitchens Project, which will help the kitchen open and begin operations.

As part of the grand opening celebration, Campus Kitchen volunteers are reaching out to the university community to donate additional canned and boxed foods to fill the Campus Kitchen pantry. Look for donation boxes in campus buildings in the coming weeks.

In addition, members of the campus community who host large events where food is served are encouraged to become part of the Campus Kitchen effort by contacting The Campus Kitchen at Kent State to recover food after an event concludes.

Since 2001, Campus Kitchens has engaged more than 25,000 student volunteers in recovering more than one million pounds of donated food and delivered one million meals to their communities. The national effort is supported by the Walmart Foundation, Sodexo, General Mills and the Corporation for National and Community Service, More information on the Campus Kitchens Project is available at www.campuskitchens.org.

Like The Campus Kitchen at Kent State on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Campus-Kitchen-at-Kent-State-University/155651411139256.

For additional information about the event or to volunteer for The Campus Kitchen at Kent State University project, contact Ann Gosky at agosky@kent.edu .