I could not have planned my internship timing better myself. In general in my life at this time with everything I’ve learned in school but also the practical dates I arrived and am departing. Just another small glimpse at the sovereignty and goodness of God. My last week just happened to correspond with CKP Boot Camp – a quick conference for new leaders to be given vision, inspiration and practical tools to jump into the upcoming year well prepared to run their campus kitchens well! The conference was Monday morning to Wednesday after lunch and had 12 different campuses represented by 31 students! Two of those students were some awesome girls from Baylor, which got me super excited for the potential of Baylor’s campus kitchen and the impact it can have on Waco this year! I’m so excited for these girls to take what they learned and apply it to create something sustainable for our kitchen! Get ready, Waco! Some innovated, well equipped girls are coming to team up with a great group of people to see lasting change to hunger!
This was the perfect wrap up of my 8 weeks here. I finished up my research and reporting last week and was able to spend my last week with some awesome people! I got to hang out, talk with, listen to, and laugh with students I had interviewed, been learning about and researching all summer. The student leaders, the people who are committing themselves to the values and ideas that Campus Kitchens Project carries and saying its worth their time and energy to invest into this dream and project. These are students who inspire me. Who dream big and risk their time, their reputation, their comfort in order to see a better future for so many in a community they’ve adopted in their time in college. To get to talk to them face to face, in the garden side by side and learning how to seal tomato puree together took all of the data collecting, researching, phone information interviews and made it all come together. Number searches and cool stories became faces and names of people I was growing to really enjoy being around. The three days went quickly and although it meant some long days and some running around, it was a pure joy! I was able to pick up on small details and practicals that I personally won’t be applying to Baylor’s Campus Kitchen, but that I’d love to pass down to those involved but also include in whatever step is next for me. I also got to use this group of students as a guinea pig to my summer project and they so graciously took my survey for me! This will help me to transform it and test to make sure it is getting the information we really want to know! Basically, it was an awesome three days of laughing, learning, putting up signs, directing people in an area I now know (that part made me proud), and eating the most delicious food. Tomorrow’s my last day and I am in awe. I’m going to miss this place.
-Kelcy Workman