Courtesy of Lu Oros

Lu Oros is Wash U’s new Community Consultant on Hunger & Homelessness.

Oros began her journey with hunger and homelessness when she started working with Operation Food Search in the late ’90s. Previously, no one west of the Mississippi had concentrated efforts on reclaiming perishable food for the homeless. After partnering with Operation Food Search, Oros helped start up the Second Helping Project, which collected perishable foods from Schnucks, Pizza Hut and other local businesses and donated them to agencies and shelters in need. More recently, Oros has worked as an adviser to both Feed St. Louis and the Campus Kitchen project at Wash. U.

She began working with nonprofits in her home state of Michigan and became most interested in the need to educate the homeless rather than simply provide for them. Oros said, “I focused on how to teach them to make good nutritional choices [and] cook food from scratch while being economical.”

In 2004, she began working with Stone Soup at Wash. U., which later became Feed St. Louis. Oros noted that over the years, students have taken their responsibility to feed the homeless more seriously. Eventually, Feed St. Louis introduced a dinner program, which serves 200 homeless people on Sundays.

Having worked with numerous students and groups over the years as an adviser, Oros said, “I have come to realize [that] I help the students most as a tool that fuses the disconnection between groups and agencies so that student groups will get the right fit with an agency that will be most beneficial for all.” Oros provides students with information on how to navigate the different agencies and neighborhoods around St. Louis and also comments on which ones are most in need.

Oros’s main initiative in the CSO will be to educate students about poverty and its relation to homelessness. She hopes to help students see that it is the responsibility of the more fortunate not only to counteract, but also to understand how people find themselves in homeless and hungry situations. “I want students to understand how their service to the homeless really enriches their lives,” she said.

“My main goal is to guide students to have a quality experience and to make a powerful impact in the St. Louis community,” she said.

Oros hopes that Wash. U. students will take with them the knowledge they gain from working with the homeless off campus and make a lifelong commitment to combating poverty.

Oros’ drop-in hours are from 7 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and from 3 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays in DUC 250.

Freshman Bennett Rosenblatt (center), Campus Kitchen Public Relations Officer, grabs some food during the Campus Kitchen kick-off reception. Wash. U.'s newly founded chapter of Campus Kitchen, an student-run operation, cooks salvaged food from Bon Appétit and delivers it to shelters in the St. Louis area. (Johann Qua Hiansen | Student Life)

Bam! After baking eggplant Parmesan, boiling greens and dicing melon, a group of Washington University students delivered food to The Shalom House—a special needs women’s shelter—and spent an afternoon eating and playing Jenga with the residents last Saturday.

This event was not a one-day volunteering endeavor. On the contrary, the event marked the inauguration of the University’s newly founded chapter of Campus Kitchen.

Beginning this semester, Wash. U. students can continue the service by volunteering to cook salvaged food, delivering it to shelters in St. Louis and eating with the clients they serve.

Instead of buying ingredients, Campus Kitchen only uses excess food salvaged from Bon Appétit and partner organizations such as Operation Food Search.

From the select ingredients procured, shift captains unleash their creativity and devise recipes, leading a group of 10 to 12 students to prepare a meal for about 40 people.

While the chapter founders originally had difficulty finding a place to cook on campus, they partnered with First Congregational Church, which has agreed to let Campus Kitchen use its industrial-sized kitchen.

Not only does First Congregational Church offer the necessary space and facilities, it is located right behind Hitzeman Hall and is a short walk from the South 40.

In addition to delivering the food to The Shalom House, student volunteers also deliver to Our Lady’s Inn, a shelter for pregnant women or women who have recently given birth. Both of these shelters are within 10 miles of the University.

Although Campus Kitchen launched its operation only last weekend, it has already received warm support from students.

Bennett Rosenblatt, a freshman who was attracted to the organization’s mission and now serves as a public relations officer, shared why he enjoyed Campus Kitchen at the kick-off reception.

“Cooking is a pretty popular thing­—a lot of people like to cook—so [people] can fuse their interest in cooking with actually helping people directly,” Rosenblatt said. “Why not just cook and help people out?”

Sophia Cinel, one of the shift captains for the kick-off delivery, also shared where she finds enjoyment in her involvement. “Not only can you cook the food for them, you get to go there and eat with the clients and interact with the clients and meet up with them, so you get really see what you get involved with and who you are helping,” Cinel said.

As of now, Campus Kitchen hosts two cooking shifts per week—one from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and one from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays—and two delivery shifts—one from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays and another from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

In the coming semesters, however, the leadership core is interested in adding an additional shift to accommodate the many students who have expressed an interest in volunteering for Campus Kitchen.

One of the most notable aspects of Campus Kitchen is that passionate students run the entire operation.

“Our entire operation is student-run,” said sophomore Catherine D’Antonio, president of Campus Kitchen. “Our students run our shifts, our students plan the shifts, our students deliver the food, our students cook the food. I love the empowerment that Campus Kitchen offers to students at Wash. U.”

D’Antonio spoke of her passion for the program: “I fell in love with Campus Kitchen probably in our training—during the first meal that we cooked. It was just the most fun thing.”

Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the Community Service Office, applauds the students’ initiative and places high hopes on this new organization.

“I am incredibly proud that they finally got to this place,” Kurtzman said. “I believe this is going to grow over time and become a staple and tradition at Wash. U. and become something that we can all be really proud of.”

When Washington University senior Jacob Siegel first began studying aikido last October while abroad in Paris, he recognized in its pacifist philosophy a potential for social change.

“In aikido, there is never that goal of injuring someone else or hurting my body in order to achieve a certain goal,” Siegel said. “And I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to take aikido to teach kids about nonviolence?’”

What started as a mere idea became a six-week-long summer program called Inner City, Inner Peace at the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ and Girls’ Club in St. Louis involving two professional aikido instructors, 25 children from the city and Siegel himself.

“It was a concept to use nonviolent art to talk about nonviolence,” Siegel said.

Siegel stressed the importance of teaching and promoting nonviolence to younger age groups, because “when you’re older and you’re in a violent situation, it’s almost too late.”

To help bring his plan into action, Siegel needed funding. He applied for the Stern Social Change Grant offered through the Community Service Office (CSO).

Siegel drafted a proposal and connected with local organizations and individuals he believed would be interested in collaborating on the project. His hard work paid off. After a competitive selection process, Siegel received the $6,000 from the grant, which he used to pay the expenses for starting up the project and for the summer’s room and board in St. Louis.

“One of the biggest purchases was gym mats. You’d be surprised how much nice gym mats cost,” he said.

Although Siegel paid the two other aikido instructors, the amount was so small that “it was much more like volunteer work.”

Siegel himself made no salary from the summer, and he paid some of the program expenses from his own pocket. Despite the disadvantage of not being paid, Siegel said he had an invaluable experience that gave him a new perspective.

“I gained experience in the non-profit field, searched for a grant and did some serious networking,” he said. “I also gained a perspective on how much more work is left to be done.”

This is precisely what the Social Change Grant program organizers hope students will take from the overall experience, said Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the CSO.

Kurtzman also emphasized that Siegel’s grant was hard-won money.

“It’s a competitive process and requires rigorous preparation. Applicants need to have already done the footwork, having identified their mentors and made contacts in the community,” Kurtzman said. “It’s really saying, ‘The only thing that stands between me and this project is the funding.’”

A selection committee of University faculty and staff members determine the winning proposals in a paper review process that first singles out the students the committee is interested in speaking with further. Given the number of available grants, only a handful of these prospectives go on to become finalists.

The finalists are then required to give a presentation during which they also answer questions from the selection committee. Kurtzman calls this time “engaging in a conversation” about the project’s viability, sustainability and how it will have an important community impact.

Each year, the CSO typically receives around 25 proposals.

“And those are people who stayed with the process,” Kurtzman said.

Siegel’s proposal and presentation was one that especially impressed the committee, according to Kurtzman.

“His preparation was stellar. He had a really thoughtful concept, and it was complete in the sense that he had incorporated many different layers into the project,” she said. “He was also extremely polished in presentation and had a solid community partnership.”

Although the majority of applicants are turned down, Kurtzman said the application process is still beneficial because it educates and prepares students for writing proposals and organizing social change projects in the future. The CSO provides applicants with workshops and individual mentors and also guides them toward other helpful resources on campus.

“This is a friendlier process than the way it works in the real world,” Kurtzman said. “You’re nurtured along the way.”

“It is inspiring to see these people with big dreams for changing the world and the capacity for making it happen.”

A total of $22,000 will be given out this year through two Stern Social Change Grants, one Kaldi’s Social Change Grant and one Gephardt Social Change Grant.

This year, approximately 20 to 30 students applied for the four available grants, either individually or in groups.

“I’m really satisfied with the number [of students who applied], because this isn’t something that’s good for just anybody,” said Stephanie Kurtzman, director of community service.

By the time the proposals were finalized, all the students seemed very qualified since they had to put a fair amount of work into their plans by then, according to Kurtzman.

“By the time we get to people who apply, they are very serious, and we could give these grants to just about anybody who applies, because by that point in the cycle they are all such strong projects,” Kurtzman said. “I would give a lot of credit to the students who are pursuing grants, and what the students submit is absolutely remarkable and is really inspiring, and it’s a reminder to me every year when the applications come in why we spend so much time to do this.”

Students began forming their proposals in the fall. The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies offered an “IdeaBounce” for students to present a summary of their visions in order to receive feedback for their real proposals.

Applicants then submitted their proposals. The finalists each presented a speech about their plans to the selection committee so that the committee had a chance to ask questions about individual proposals before the grants were awarded.

II Luscri, student services coordinator at the Skandalaris Center, is also happy with this year’s proposals.

“I do know from the ideas that were presented in the IdeaBounce that there should be some pretty good ideas out there,” Luscri said.

The grants help fund students’ ideas and enable them to complete their desired projects.

“Basically, the social change grants are really oriented toward social entrepreneurship for students to have the funds to pursue an innovative entrepreneurial community grant over the summer,” Kurtzman said. “This is really for people who dream up an idea and can identify something tangible enough that can be done for the summer.”

Bo Zhang, a junior who applied for a grant, has already been informed that she will not receive one. She proposed to start a library for a village in China.

“They gave me feedback, and one problem with the grant was that it was providing books, and the spirit of the grant was actual action of change,” Zhang said.

Kurtzman mentioned that while finances also seem to influence the proposals, they still barely cover the costs of some projects.

“[A lot of people] have an idea that they really want to pursue that in the broadest of terms can make the world better in some way, but they can’t just take off for the summer and do it without financial backing, so that’s really where [the proposal] came from,” Kurtzman said.

The grants allow the students to take the summer to work on what they choose, instead of being paid for working at a job or an internship. Recently, there has been an increased interest in international projects.

Between airfare, vaccinations, passports and visa costs, the grants often do not cover the full cost of students’ projects.

The Gephardt grant specifically goes to students wishing to work abroad. Along the realms of grants being used for specific activities, Kurtzman hopes that more donors will supply grants.

“My hope and dream is that as we go, and I don’t expect something to flood in on us especially in this economy, but that donors can supply developed grants that meet their interests. I would love to have broad, open grants, but frankly if I had a choice, I would love to just [have any grants], and I think that’s a way for a supporter to support something that’s close to their hearts,” Kurtzman said.

Luscri also said that the current economic conditions are unfavorable for the grant proposers.

“I would assume that this summer, since funding resources are tight all over, that there is going to be even more of a demand [for the grants],” Luscri said.

Overall, the experience of pursuing one’s proposal is viewed as very worthwhile for students.

Junior Priya Sury traveled to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to work on HIV issues in maternity centers. She liked it so much that she will be returning again to expand her programming.

“We enjoyed the experience a lot,” Sury said.

I started volunteering at the Juvenile Detention Center in downtown St. Louis my freshman year. It has been the only extracurricular activity I have participated in for all four years at Wash. U., and it has been by far the most meaningful one. Many people are skeptical about volunteering with criminals, no matter their age or offense. Year after year at the activities fair, I sit and watch people’s reactions to our cause. Every now and then I spot a person looking at my table with a mixture of confusion, fear and more rarely, disgust. I guess it makes sense: they don’t want to offer affection to the kids who have stolen cars, sold drugs or committed assault. So when they see that a group of Wash. U. students goes to hang out with these “delinquents” a few times every week, their reactions aren’t sympathetic.

A few days ago, I was talking to a friend of mine about my volunteering at the center. He was shocked. “Anna,” he said with a hint of chauvinistic concern, “aren’t you worried about your safety? Couldn’t they hurt you? Isn’t there somewhere else to volunteer?” It was at that point I realized, first, that never once had I been worried about my personal safety at the Center, and secondly, how many terrible misconceptions there are about these youth.

This past Monday was a great day at the Center. The boys were divided into units by age, and we were with the youngest unit, ages 13-14, and the middle unit, which is 15-16. I was lucky enough to play one of my favorite card games, Spades, with three of the guys. I love Spades, and I especially love playing with the boys at the Center because no matter how hard I try I am always the weakest player. I leave reminded of the fact that although these guys may have trouble in school, they are by no stretch of the imagination stupid. Their ability to count cards, read people’s plays and predict my next discard demonstrates a mental agility that I would love to have.

They kept asking me about college: “What is it like? Do you party a lot? Do you have lock-ins?” I explained as best I could what Wash. U. is like, telling about coed dorms, long nights of studying and that Thursday is often considered part of the weekend. They all told me that they want to go to college some day, preferably soon.

And then, out of the blue, one of the boys, Marcus, looked at me and said, “We aren’t bad people; do you know that? We aren’t. We are people that have made bad decisions.” I was pleasantly struck by this reflective introspection, and I reassured him that I knew they weren’t bad people; that I wouldn’t come every week if I thought they were. Then he explained to me that he made bad decisions because he grew up under tough conditions, and that it was easy to make bad choices where he was from. I was so distracted by feelings of maternal warmth for this boy that I accidentally overplayed my partner who would have taken the trick. He sighed, the other two eyed each other and grinned and I thought about what Marcus said.

This isn’t the first time one of the teens at the center asked us not to judge them too harshly. A few years ago a boy told us that the world thought that they were all monsters and wondered if we got paid to spend time with them. I think that’s why I’ve never been concerned for my safety with these boys—they want us to like them. They honestly appreciate that we volunteer because we want to, not because we have to.

I don’t naïvely pretend that every person held at that Center is a sweet child who, forced by inescapable outside influences, makes an understandable mistake that lands him there.

The majority of them have committed crimes and they deserve to be punished for those crimes. I do, however, feel very strongly that these youth want to be taken seriously; they want to be understood; many of them realize on a deep level that they are the product of their unpleasant surroundings. They are also terribly aware of what people think of them and they don’t pretend to be unaffected by it.

In the past four years I have become acutely aware how easy, and wrong, it is to underestimate the intelligence and amiability of Missouri’s troubled youth. These kids deserve a chance, and in our plethora of opportunities to volunteer, I feel lucky to have found this one.

The recent blood drives in September and November managed to collect more than 1,000 units of blood. Organizers hope that the drives throughout the entire school year will collect more than 2,000 units total.

Last year was the first time the University had a large single-day blood drive, and drives throughout the year collected more than 1,800 units. The year before, however, fewer than 700 units of blood were collected.

This year, the Community Service Office (CSO) also set up a leadership project in which the office can further support all the student-run community service activities by providing leadership training for student leaders.

The training will consist of different sessions to best help each individual student group contribute to the community.

“[The leadership project will] maximize positive impact and minimize harm [done by the student groups,” CSO Director Stephanie Kurtzman said.

Some sessions will focus on a certain issue, such as hunger, while others will be focused on a general approach, like philanthropy.

Next week’s session will focus on organizational structure of a student group. More than 25 students have already signed up for the session.

One other new step the CSO has taken this year is to have community service mentors. There are mentors in Brookings and JKL residential colleges this year, and the CSO hopes to expand the program in the future.

The mentors work with both the CSO and the Office of Residential Life to increase participation in community service activities among students in their residential colleges. They hope to increase attendance at already-existing activities and plan their own activities for their residents.

According to Kurtzman, the blood drives, like all other community service activities, are organized by University students.

“All of [the community service activities are] due to student leadership,” Kurtzman said. “Even if it’s the initiative of the CSO, it’s still student-run.”

CSO, consisting of three professional staff members, not only assists community service groups, but also offers its services to any student group that wants to do a service event. CSO has helped Ashoka, the University’s South Asian students association, with its annual Gandhi Day of Service, even though community service is not Ashoka’s primary goal.

Other community service activities, in addition to the blood drives, have shown much success so far this year, said Kurtzman.

Each One Teach One has expanded and now operates with 92 tutors. It has also been strengthened with a new curriculum and increased communication between the tutors to best help the students.

Additionally, many more service trips, known as Alternative Break trips, are being offered. There are more than 30 trips registered to take place during this school year.

Kurtzman is very pleased with the increase in trip offerings, as she finds the trips to be great opportunities to engage in community service.

“[This is] exciting for us because we think [the service trips] are valuable and it’s important for the students to have this opportunity,” Kurtzman said.

Freshman Ingold Huang, who receives e-mail newsletters from the CSO about community service events occurring on campus, said he finds the newsletters informative, although he has not participated in any activities yet this year besides Service First.

He said he would attend activities with his residential college, Lee/Beaumont, if it had a community service mentor.

“I would maybe participate, depending on how much work I have and what other commitments I have to other activities and friends,” Huang said.

This week, the Washington University Marrow Registration (WUMR) is sponsoring an initiative in conjunction with the National Marrow Donor Program, a national organization that links more than 11 million donors worldwide to patients in need.

For more than seven years, the National Marrow Donor Program has been visiting the University in an effort to attract donors. The program also works with other colleges in Missouri, such as Saint Louis University, the University of Missouri and several local community colleges.

With an additional drive taking place at the upcoming Dance Marathon event on Saturday, WUMR is expecting more than 600 donors this year, which is almost double the usual number of 300.

WUMR has placed special emphasis this year on the ease of donating bone marrow samples. The entire process takes approximately 10 minutes of filling out paperwork and doing some simple cheek swabs.

Students are strong candidates for the program because of their age. Donors will remain on the registry until the age of 61, giving young people the best opportunity to donate.

Robin Garcia Oswald, a recruitment supervisor for the organization, hopes that all students will make the educated choice to participate.

“I would ask the students to learn a little bit more about it,” Oswald said. “It is not only a moral commitment because also a lifetime commitment.”

Although all students are a strong focus of the national program, WUMR is especially targeting freshmen to eliminate overlap and have held almost all of their drives in freshman dorms.

“I’d like to see a competition within the St. Louis area and have students [from other universities] challenge each other,” Oswald said.

Many students who participated in the bone marrow drive cited personal reasons for donating or contributing their time.

Freshman Elizabeth Riley, who volunteered to help head up the drives, participated by greeting potential donors and stirring up a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for new registrants.

“My grandfather was diagnosed with leukemia a couple years ago. I definitely have a personal connection [to this cause],” Riley said.

Sophomore Eric Kim was one of many who registered on Wednesday, along with the rest of his suitemates.

Although Kim had been personally affected when his friend’s mother died from cancer, he said, “I would have registered anyway, but it’s definitely something you think about as you’re doing it.”

“There’s a lot of fear and misconceptions about being a bone marrow donor,” Oswald said. “We want to dispel those myths while we’re here on campus and give students an opportunity to help save a life.”

The hurricane hit a region devastated in Aug. 2005 when Hurricane Katrina left the New Orleans, La. area and swaths of the Gulf Coast in ruins.

Now, University leaders like Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the Community Service Office (CSO), and junior Jeff Nelson, vice president of administration, are encouraging Washington University students to come together to aid Gustav recovery efforts much like they did after Katrina’s destructive impact.

“As students at elite institutions, we take much for granted,” Nelson said. “I hope all of us, no matter what groups we are involved in, can take even just a few moments to think of how we can contribute. Whether it is by sending money, by sending food or by going to help out, I think we all have a responsibility.”

Gustav peaked at Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, packing maximum sustained winds of 150 mph with higher gusts. It made landfall about 50 miles southwest of New Orleans, La. on Sept. 1 as a Category 2 storm, with winds of 110 mph.

Though not as destructive as Katrina, Gustav is blamed for at least 110 deaths in the United States and Caribbean nations, cutting off power for more than one million U.S. residents and causing as much as $10 billion in damages—damages potentially making the hurricane one of the 10 costliest Atlantic hurricanes in history.

Kurtzman believes that Gustav will likely not receive as much attention in the University community as Katrina because Gustav was not as damaging, but she hopes that members of the University community remember many people victimized by Katrina are still suffering, and many more were made worse off by Gustav.

“The sad thing is Katrina is still devastating a lot of people, but it’s not a popular topic anymore,” she said. “It’s not just about while the crisis is happening, it’s about the long-term rebuild and response. Those needs will continue even after it leaves the headlines.”

According to Kurtzman, students can get involved in several ways. Students who know of Gustav-related events can share them with the CSO, which then publishes event listings in its semiweekly newsletter.

She is also confident that many social action groups on campus will start their own relief initiatives. Additionally, the CSO sponsors several service trips each year.

Student Union (SU) has not yet decided how it will approach the Gustav relief efforts. According to junior Jeff Nelson, vice president of administration, the SU Executive Committee will be meeting today to discuss the situation.

But Nelson emphasized that students understand the seriousness of disasters like Gustav.

“During these times it is important for us to not think of what a student group is going to do, what Student Union is going to do or what the administration is going to do,” he said. “We have to place ourselves in the shoes of individuals who are affected by these types of events…events that they can’t control.”

At the same time, Kurtzman emphasized that while there are numerous worthy causes in the world in need of aid, it is often very difficult to contribute aid to all of them.

“I think we always have to draw a careful line in how we respond to need in the community because there is constant need everywhere, and every community’s story is pressing to somebody,” Kurtzman said.

In the case of Hurricane Katrina, response from the University was widespread. In addition to an all-school meeting to coordinate University-based relief efforts, a group known as Project SOS (Students of the South) was formed to coordinate additional relief efforts, including money collection, fundraising events, and trip to the affected areas, and the CSO also shared information with the University on numerous relief events and initiatives.

Students believe that student involvement in Gustav recovery efforts is a worthy cause, and many are mindful of Katrina’s continued impact.

“I think it’s a good idea, especially after Hurricane Katrina, I feel like lot of us didn’t do as much as we could especially since I was still in high school, so now that I’m more aware of how terrible it was I don’t want that to happen again,” sophomore Laura Steefel-Moore said. “I feel like they never have fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina yet, there’s still a lot of work to be done down there.”

However, senior Andrew Pazendak feels that while Gustav is a worthy cause, many other worthy causes exist, and it is not possible to aid them all.

“There’s so many things I feel like we all should get involved in, but if we got involved in all of them I feel like we’d be overwhelmed,” he said.