By Julia Mills
Campus Kitchen at UGA, in partnership with the Athens Community Council on Aging (ACCA), prepared 1,400 Thanksgiving meals this year as part of the third annual Turkeypalooza. Campus Kitchen is a program of the Office of Service-Learning, a unit that reports jointly to the UGA Vice Presidents for Public Service and Outreach and Instruction.
Nearly 3,000 canned goods and food items were collected, 205 Thanksgiving bags for local seniors put together and 175 Thanksgiving meals for local seniors were prepared. Bags included all of the necessities for a Thanksgiving meal: turkey and ingredients for green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and stuffing which were received by seniors involved in ACCA and community seniors.
During the week of Turkeypalooza, Nov. 19-25, 35 students and four staff members volunteered more than 100 hours to transport and bag canned goods, prepare and package meals and distribute bags and meals to seniors. Public Service and Outreach Student Scholars bagged items on the Friday before Thanksgiving, while Campus Kitchen volunteers spent Saturday at Talmage Terrace Lanier Gardens preparing meals.
Donations were collected from Public Service and Outreach units and additional support came from ACCA, Terry Institute for Leadership Advancement, UGA Health Promotion, Gamma Sigma Sigma, Peer Nutrition Educators, Kappa Alpha Theta, UGA Ultimate Frisbee and other groups and individuals who donated canned goods, funds and time.
For questions or to learn more about how to volunteer with Campus Kitchen, contact Sarah Jackson at sarjack@uga.edu.
