Campus Kitchen

Campus Kitchen Saint Louis University (CKSLU) has been a part of Saint Louis University since 2001, and is a student led volunteer organization dedicated to fighting for food justice in and around our SLU neighborhood.

Campus Kitchen participants have opportunities to investigate and promote various food justice and hunger advocacy initiatives, as well as form meaningful personal relationships with those that they serve.

Volunteering Information

You may sign up as a volunteer through SignUpGenius

For the 2020-2021 academic year, our shifts are as follows:

About The Kitchen

Campus Kitchen addresses issues of food justice by both reducing food waste and providing meals to those who are hungry. Using donated food that would otherwise be wasted, volunteers - mainly SLU students, staff and faculty - prepare, package and deliver about 400 meals a week to people who are food insecure. These are men, women, children and seniors who live independently in homes across the street from our SLU campus, as well as those who are living in nearby emergency shelters and transitional housing. In addition to meals, we provide our excess fresh produce to various non-profit organizations. We estimate that 600 individuals are fed each week through the efforts of CKSLU.

In our food recovery efforts, we recover approximately 1,000 pounds of food weekly from our community partner, Trader Joe’s. This is food that would be thrown away as unsellable product for a variety of reasons (e.g. a smashed box top, one bad apple in a five-pound bag, too close to the “best by” date). We also partner with DineSLU to recover additional food and are working together to reduce as much food waste as possible.

Campus Kitchen Saint Louis University also provides an environment for community-based learning experiences and community building. Students have opportunities to investigate and promote various food justice and hunger advocacy initiatives, as well as form meaningful personal relationships with those that they serve. Once a month, we develop and participate in a Beyond the Meals program, which may be anything from a game night to a yoga class, as an empowering way of fostering these relationships. Hunger is not simply an empty stomach; it is often accompanied by isolation and loneliness. CKSLU volunteers strive to deliver not only meals, but companionship and conversation as well.