In light of Thanksgiving being just around the corner, Her Campus decided to interview a student who spends her spare time ensuring that every family in Winston Salem can have a great Thanksgiving holiday. Meet Jess Jordan, a sophomore who works with Campus Kitchen. We sat down with Jess to find out more about Campus Kitchen and its main projects during the holiday season.
For those of you who don’t know, Campus Kitchen is an organization that tackles hunger in the Winston Salem area by providing prepared food from campus dining options to various organizations in the local area. Jess informed us that Campus Kitchen “prepares and delivers meals to members of the Winston-Salem community such as The Children’s Home, AIDS care, Azelea Terrace Senior Living, and many others.”
Jess personally got involved with Campus Kitchen at the beginning of her freshman year, when she would deliver dinner every Thursday to the Children’s Home Restart program, a program that helps high school students suffering from drug and alcohol addictions an opportunity to take their lives in a different direction.
When asked about her role in Campus Kitchen currently, Jess says, “This year, I am the leader of this shift to the Children’s Home. I think I most enjoy the relationships I’ve formed with the kids at the Children’s Home because I feel that we really learn a lot from each other. I can tell that I am a role model for them and I’ve loved learning about their passions and all the different things we have in common.”
This time of year, Campus Kitchen runs a program called Turkeypalooza, during which Campus Kitchen makes and delivers full Thanksgiving dinners to the organizations that they partner with. Jess gave us the inside scoop that this project has been going on since 2006 when Campus Kitchen Nationals started. We asked our Campus Celeb what she thinks about the ambitious and amazing project. She says, “Turkeypalooza is a really important part of Campus Kitchen because it provides comfort during the holidays for many people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to enjoy a holiday meal.”
To all other Wake Forest students seeking to spread the holiday cheer as Jess does, she says: “Everyone in the Wake Forest community can help with Turkeypalooza, even if they aren’t involved with Campus Kitchen! Any little bit helps around Thanksgiving and monetary donations are much appreciated. People can also pick a fresh food off of our necessary ingredients for Turkeypalooza and donate that, such as a bag of cranberries for cranberry sauce or ingredients for pumpkin cookies.”
A perfect example of pro humanitate, Jess is a great candidate for Campus Celebrity! Keep it up Jess!