In the spirit of “being men and women for others,” The Campus Kitchen held its annual fall food drive that amassed thousands of pounds of non-perishable food items as well as monetary donations to help those in need in the Jersey City area.
The Campus Kitchen, which repurposes extra unused food into nutritious meals for the hungry, collects uncooked non-perishable donations year-round. However in addition to that, its annual fall food drive this year raised more than $1,000 and yielded more than 3,300 lbs. in food donations.
“Since the opening of The Campus Kitchen and the Saint Peter’s University Food and Clothes Pantry, we have taken the steps to live out magis — to go above and beyond in our service to those in need in our community,” said Erich Sekel, associate director of campus ministry for community service.
The donations will go toward stocking the shelves of The Campus Kitchen and the Saint Peter’s University Food and Clothes Pantry to supplement meals to ensure they are nutritionally balanced. In addition, bags of non-perishable food items will be distributed to those in need.
Sekel recalled how at one point, all the food was sent to the Community Foodbank in Hillside, NJ. “That was great — but now we have taken the issue of hunger into our hands,” he explained.
This means that The Campus Kitchen now uses its donations to cook meals and directly hand out bags of food, which allows them to interact and form relationships with the people they help.
“It is much more personal and that is just as, if not more, important than the food we give,” added Sekel.
Moving forward, The Campus Kitchen has plans to start serving meals on-site in addition to delivering its meals to shelters and individual homes.
“We don’t just want to visit them, we want to welcome people into our home at Saint Peter’s,” said Sekel.