Kitchen Cabinet
November 12, 2018
Kevin Birr, Jeri Miller, Jen Donkin, Danielle Burger, Alan AMeier, Jim Dontje, Lisa Heldke, Adam Bogen, Bri Jol, Paul Matzke, Chuck Niederriter, Rafael Soriano Campos, Evan Jakes
Rafael Soriano – Campus Kitchens at Gustavus?
Campus Kitchens is a national nonprofit that helps with food insecurity & hunger. They collect excess of food & redistribute to low income areas. This year there is more of a specific outcome & goal. Evan Jakes has joined Rafael in this project. They have been in contact with directors of Campus Kitchens in Mankato. They don’t have funding or place and were told they need to start with which type of foods they will be dealing with. Campus Kitchens can then help with funding & the space may unfold in the process. Next step is recruiting more people to their team – goal of 6 and look into which type of food. Rafael and Evan have a meeting next week with St. Peter Food Access group. They have also talked with St. Peter Churches who supply meals to the community.
First step is to create this organization & recruit freshmen & sophomores to help this continue long term. They also have a meeting coming up with campus kitchen in Mankato. It may be where they partner with them to get started before go out on their own.
Kevin has concern there hasn’t been success with a town of this size. Currently Mankato pulls food from Suppliers in St. Peter but none of the food comes back to St Peter. Also looking into which communities needs will be met. They are still looking at potential options for food sources in the community.
Question posed where will the food be used and where can we be useful. They are still in the planning phase in working out this process.
They have also talked to Ryan from ELCA World Hunger and he mentioned looking at a way to compliment the meal plan in a cheaper way.
Also suggestion posed for an information sharing system so those who have extra food can communicate with those looking for food. There is are several apps out there that could be used for this – most are proprietary though.
Adam B. shared he has connections at Hamlin who have created a food sharing system for those who are food insecure and can help connect Rafael and Evan with them.
Nobel Café – Kevin/Jeri- Naming Contest Dates and Details
T-shirt design contest was done through the bookmark & they would like to continue this idea with the naming contest. Ideas for the contest were pulled from Facebook. The Bookmark created guidelines for the t-shirt and marketing was brought in to help reviewing t-shirt submissions. They were narrowed down to 4 finalists. It was promoted through social media along with the holiday sales promotions and other activities in the bookmark as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. There were also posters placed in this building.
Our next steps – There is a narrow window of time. Suggestions for promotion – nobel and fine arts organizations, Once Upon a Potty posters, social media. Also plan to bring in someone in from marketing to help advise.
Nobel 2019 – Lisa
Looking for 3-4 people (from this committee and the Nobel planning committee) interested in working on a subcommittee looking at how the food served at Nobel can be sending a message related to climate change and how we may respond responsively. Every year a resounding piece of feedback is “why isn’t the food more relevant to the conference”. Example where we had a speaker who was a proponent of meatless eating & the menu was a large piece of meat. In the past one action we did was to not allow sale of bottled water the day of the conference, though this created a lot of anger from patrons. Another year each Nobel speaker came up with an idea for the menu, which worked very well.
The topic for Nobel 2019 is “Climate Change – Facing our Future”.
Enactus and the Book Mark – Molly / Danielle
Open book met last week, this group discussed what the bookmark can do and offer, what we have, what is missing and how do we get more community up in the store or do we go down to the community. Also want to promote more to students and staff that this is more than a bookstore and is the campuses store. Suggestions were promoting the Book Mark in community newspapers, ladies night out, churches, posters on community bulletin boards. Concern was raised how to promote while also making sure people know where it is located. One suggestion was to get more reading space in the Book Mark but concern was how to make it more visible. Currently there is a lot of use of the chairs outside of the bookmark – how can we bring this into the store? Wayfinding is looking at ways to make places on campus easier to find. Would renaming it help?
Molly has met with some students (Enactus) who want to do delivery service on campus. A punch card was discussed that could be purchased in the bookstore. They are still working out details for this project. Timeline is to get details figured out this semester & pilot it next semester. Challenge is it is all seniors & they need to gain interest in younger students to make this sustainable. Right now systems looks like they will purchase a punch card in the Book Mark and order food on line. They will be set up in the rotisserie in the evening to process the orders, put in the warmers & deliver out the back door.
Jen – What types of concerns are you seeing? Volume? International Students? Vegans?
Jen has seen an increase in new student visits, especially with first year students. She is seeing 10 more students/month this school year than the average the past 2 years. There have been a lot of concerns with food intolerances & allergies. There have only been a handful of international students. The rest have been vegetarians/vegans, eating disorders and students wanting help with eating healthier and losing weight.
Interim Asst. Director of Building Services – Paul – Opportunites for Cooperative/Collective Work
- Larry Tetow director of building services stepped down a few weeks ago – Paul is filling in as interim along with his Dining Service duties.
- He has been wrapping his head around the needs. He has found custodial staff are angry with where they are at and how they are treated.
- Paul is looking at ways to bring in peace & make them feel appreciated.
- He is looking at ways to make a lighter atmosphere / change the climate
- He has talked to Molly about treats from the bookmark as thank you’s
- He will start high five Fridays
- How do we promote other employees saying high by name to the custodians – ? poster with their names
- During the academic year they work in buildings where in the summer they work in groups/teams
- How do we encourage culture of respect with students and building services staff?
- They recently changed to a model where there are supervisors over the staff – some didn’t know this was happening because they don’t check email and this has caused much irritation amongst staff.
- Could there be a lunch and learn for the building service employees to build more teamwork?
- It also needs to include the people who don’t work during the day.
- Suggestions to have meet and greet with different student groups & facilities staff, custodial staff invited to building events, have poster for thank you notes at end of the year
Report from PESC – Jim
Trying to make the message “doing good at the trash/recycling is doing good to other human beings”. How do we promote sustainability and taking care of our community and fellow employees? They have the go ahead to develop a zero waste plan. The other area of focus is looking at the next Nobel conference- our community has not grasped the level of seriousness climate change has & ways to have it more visibly real. Attendees will be asking what has Gustavus done to stop climate change? There is a plan for a big reveal at Nobel.
EAC – Zero waste committee – Before the end of the semester they would like to have an educational event about what campus is doing with recycling and composting. Looking at compost bins that could be branded with Gustavus but need to look at more education on composting to students and making sure they have the means to compost.
Next Meeting – December 10th