Lauren McCarthy's Campus Kitchen Project

Junior Merrimack Honors Program student Lauren McCarthy extends her efforts of incorporating community involvement on campus by working to start the Campus Kitchen Project (CKP) at Merrimack. The Campus Kitchen Project is a national non-profit organization. It works with high schools and colleges to strive towards relieving hunger to people in the area. CKP utilizes the schools’ kitchens, food from cafeterias and dining halls, and the students who volunteer to make meals and deliver them to different places in the community.

Lauren plans to have Merrimack’s Campus Kitchen open in the spring of this year (2015). With 43 other Campus Kitchens in the nation, Merrimack will only be the second in New England; the first is UMass Boston. Merrimack faces the obstacle of its size because the other schools that host kitchens are much larger. However, Lauren is confident that there will be no problem and that the values of Merrimack students will make up for the lack of size.

This program caught Laurens attention at the National Conference for Collegiate Women Leaders (NCCWSL) and since then she has been actively working to make it happen. She thinks that this is something that Merrimack could do to give back to the community. Referring to Merrimack students, Lauren says, “In addition to being challenged academically, we are pushed to encompass our personal strengths, passions, and academics in order to make positive changes in our community.” She strongly believes that adding the Campus Kitchen Project to Merrimack will give students that opportunity.

The college’s dining service Sodexo is supporting Lauren’s idea. They will allow students to use the extra frozen food and also use the kitchen to prepare the meals.

The goal for the first year is to have enough volunteers to run the kitchen for a few hours every Sunday. Lauren aims to donate weekly to the Lazarus House and Neighbors in need which are organizations in Lawrence that help local people in need.

Without the diligent work Lauren has given to this cause, the Campus Kitchen Project would not be making progress at Merrimack College. It takes a lot of work to start programs like this one. Lauren wants to call on the student body to help CKP come alive at the college. She wants enough volunteers from the student body to keep the kitchen up and running. She hopes that clubs, departments, athletic teams, and even members of the community will be willing to volunteer. Anyone interested in volunteering or helping Lauren develop the program can contact her at mccarthyla@merrimack.edu. It is something great that the college can do to give back to the community with the motivation of the student body and community to sustain it.