CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Sheila Scurlock loves leftovers.
Mrs. Scurlock, a coordinator at New Life Community Kitchen, swings by Lee University's campus every day to pick up uneaten food from the school's dining hall and food bank to serve to Bradley County's needy.
Over the summer, Lee hosts weekly summer camps for grades five through 12, so several thousand campers are in and out of Lee's dining hall three times a day, said Brian Conn, Lee's director of public information.
Through a program called Campus Kitchens, Lee has been donating close to 1,000 pounds of "recycled" food to the program during the summer. That supplies about half of the daily need at New Life, Lee food bank coordinator Kyle Hinch said.
Lee is the only college in Tennessee and one of just 26 schools in the nation to participate in the Campus Kitchens project.
"This partnership is going to exist for a long time," Mr. Hinch said. "This is something that Lee really believes in."
The increase in food comes at a time when more people are visiting the kitchen because of the recession, Mrs. Scurlock said.
"It's a phenomenal program," she said. "It's reaching the needs of people in this area at an astronomical rate. We could not do what we're doing today without Lee's help."
Kelvin Tarukwasha, a manager at Sodexo, which provides the college's food service, said there's almost always excess when preparing food for a high number of people.
Jamie Shuler, resident dining manager at Lee, said he "would rather see someone else eat the food than see it go to waste."
During the academic year, Lee students typically prepare and deliver meals to New Life, Mr. Hinch said. Because of the university's social service requirement, many students also choose to volunteer by serving guests and painting at the New Life Community Kitchen.
This year, Lee received a $2,000 grant from Campus Kitchens to donate to New Life, paying for renovations and new awnings, said William Lamb, director of field experiences for Lee's Leonard Center, where the university's food bank is located. The university also secured a four-year grant to help sustain the local Campus Kitchens program, he said.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
Article: Charities struggle to balance needed meals, nutrition