Learning in Service

Student volunteers at Campus Kitchens are dedicated to giving back to their community.

Auburn University’s Campus Kitchens (CKAU) is a student service organization that began in 2011 delivering meals to community members in need.

Auburn Outreach’s Director of the Office of Public Service supports CKAU. Dr. Jocelyn Vickers advises CKAU to ensure the prosperity of the group and its projects.

In Alabama, the fifth poorest state in the country, many residents struggle to access nutritious food. “I want to do everything I can to help limit and prevent this, especially seeing how much food goes to waste,” CKAU President Jake Gaertner stated.

They aim to address food insecurity in Lee County by working to provide “equal access to healthy, nourishing food.”

One of their initiatives is the Auburn Family Meals program. “Anyone connected to Auburn can get completely free meals no questions asked,” CKAU President Jake Gaertner stated.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday’s people can pick up meals and snacks from the Lupton Residence Hall on Roosevelt Concourse.

They receive commercially prepared and unserved food, and “package individual meals with a carb, a vegetable and a protein to try to get a well-balanced, nutritious meal.”

CKAU also partners with “Meals on Wheels, after school programs, battered women’s shelters, churches, and anywhere there’s a need for food in the community,” Gaertner added.

Much of their food source is derived from Tiger Dining which generously provides “about 90 percent of our food,” Gaertner stated. They also support CKAU by providing the kitchen facility at the CKAU headquarters.

After picking up food from dining halls and campus restaurants, student volunteers weigh and freeze the food in the kitchen facility. Another shift of volunteers packages food into individual meal portions.

Those who deliver food play a special role in CKAU operations. They have the opportunity to “see a whole different side of Auburn,” Gaertner shared.

“This campus is sort of like a bubble for college students…not representative of the town of Auburn itself,” he added.

“Lee County is completely different from campus,” Gaertner emphasized.

They deliver about 1,200 meals a week to a wide variety of people, outside of the “nice buildings” on campus and the student-centered areas of Auburn. Volunteers also make relationships with the people they assist.

This includes spending time with the residents at EASEHouse. EASEHouse is a low-income senior living facility. “They remind me of my grandparents,” he shared.

At CKAU, volunteering is not done out of mere obligation.

“During your four years in college, it’s almost like a selfish time; you’re focused on everything else: your classes, your schoolwork, your grades, and everything like that.”

According to Gaertner, your time in college is also “a great opportunity to give back to your community.”

Volunteers are compelled to “leave something better than they found it in, and being able to come and volunteer like this gives you that opportunity to leave the City of Auburn and Lee County better than when you got here.”

More information about the organization can be found on the CKAU website, and students can sign up to volunteer using their link on AUInvolve.

Join the fight to “fork hunger!”