Senior Helps Campus Kitchen Continue Serving During COVID-19 Crisis
04/15/2020
Two years ago, Alaina Valdes, now a senior at Saint Louis University, put her culinary talents to work with SLU’s Campus Kitchen during a volunteer shift, making meals for the University’s neighbors in need.
She’s been going back ever since, and now, as the SLU and St. Louis communities fight to flatten the curve of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Epidemic (COVID-19), Valdes has helped the kitchen carry on making sure women, men and children experiencing food insecurity don’t miss needed meals due to the current public health crisis.
“I've always enjoyed volunteering with the kitchen, so I wanted to,” Valdes, an economics major in the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business, explained. “I also felt especially needed since food insecurity has increased due to this pandemic and since our main volunteer base – the students – has dispersed. It was just really important to me to continue the work of Campus Kitchen.”
CKSLU began operating in 2001 and is a student-led volunteer organization dedicated to fighting for food justice in and around the University’s Midtown neighborhood. The kitchen also has fresh, frozen and nonperishable food to offer any students who are in need.
Valdes was drawn to the kitchen through her fellow volunteers, by its connections with community partners and by the kitchen’s mission to combat food insecurity, an issue that resonates deeply with Valdes.
“The people who make up the organization and the work they do are all so incredible, I knew I found where I was supposed to be,” she said. “SLU's Jesuit mission is all about serving the community and emboldening people to be men and women for and with others, and I think Campus Kitchen lives that out so fully, especially during these difficult and uncertain times.”
“Of course, continuing to make meals for our community partners is one element, but Campus Kitchen emphasizes the ‘being with others’ part too,” she continued. “We try to be mindful of the space in which we occupy and put ourselves on the same level as the people we serve. I like to think of us as both a helper and a friend.”
Learn How Campus Kitchen is Helping St. Louisans During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers nearly 13,000 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.
Written by Amelia Flood, University Marketing and Communications.