Wildcats Needed to 'Raise the Dough' With UK Campus Kitchen

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 20, 2019) — Hunger is a solvable problem, but Campus Kitchen at the University of Kentucky (CKUK) needs your help. Campus Kitchen is in the midst of its annual online fundraising challenge, "Raise the Dough," from now until 11:59 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22. Students and community members can donate to the online fundraising page.

Founded in 2014, CKUK is an on-campus student service organization that provides a sustainable approach to reducing food waste and healthy meals to those individuals struggling with food insecurity, both on campus and in the Lexington community.

This year, CKUK's goal is to raise $1,500. The money raised will help CKUK continue to fight hunger and food waste in Lexington. How can your donation help end hunger?

With $5, CKUK can provide 10 meals to UK students experiencing hunger.

With $10, CKUK can purchase staple ingredients like a 25-pound bag of flour, three pounds of butter or a 10-pound bag of sugar.

With $25, CKUK can purchase new food storage containers to increase CKUK's food recovery capacity.

With $50, CKUK can provide a full Farm-to-Fork lunch, which serves 125 students.

With $100, CKUK can employ a Farm-to-Fork student manager for a month.

With $250, CKUK can fund CKUK's nutrition education programs for the entire semester, which reaches 50 individuals experiencing hunger.

With $500, CKUK can provide Farm-to-Fork meals for an entire semester, which equals 1,600 healthy meals.

With $1,000, CKUK can support a Farm-to-Fork student coordinator for a year.

With $5,000, CKUK can employ an AmeriCorps VISTA Food Justice Manager for a year.

This year, the Craig Newmark Philanthropies is matching every donation of $100 or under up to $15,000. The school with the most amount of money raised will win a $1,000 prize, and the school with the highest number of donors will win a $750 prize. The fundraising challenge is part of a national campaign through The Campus Kitchens Project, which oversees 65 Campus Kitchen chapters across the country. In 2018, 27 schools participated in "Raise the Dough" and raised nearly $50,000 from 877 donors.

Since 2001, the Campus Kitchens Project has empowered student volunteers across the United States to recover more than 7 million pounds of food and serve over 3.3 million meals. Since its founding in 2014, CKUK has recovered more than 19,700 pounds of food and served more than 13,400 meals. For more information about the organization's work, visit https://campuskitchens.org/.