While planning their annual service project for the 2024 holiday season, the staff in the SC&I Office of Student Services floated the names of several important New Brunswick organizations, all dedicated to serving the local community, where they could volunteer. This year, they collectively jumped at the chance to go to Elijah’s Promise in person for the first time.
For over 35 years, Elijah’s Promise, a community soup kitchen, culinary arts school, and food truck (their soup kitchen on wheels), located on Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick, and their community partners, “have been transforming lives through the power of food. Together, we serve more than 400,000 free, nutritious meals each year to food-insecure individuals across Middlesex County, NJ—making us the largest provider of free prepared meals in the county,” said Chef Chrissy Banks, Associate Director of Operations and Promise Culinary School Director at Elijah’s Promise.
“Supporting our friends at Elijah's Promise was not only a great service project for our local New Brunswick community, but also a wonderful opportunity for team building as our SC&I Student Services staff worked together toward the common goal of preparing the meals,” said Assistant Dean for Student Services Kevin Ewell. “We learned a great deal about each other through this experience. We look forward to other opportunities to support and serve our partners in community.”
How much food did the OSS team prepare? Chef Chrissy Banks said, “The Rutgers SC&I volunteer group made a real difference for the guests we serve. 1 in 9 people in New Jersey faces food insecurity, according to Feeding America. That day, volunteers cleaned and cut nearly 400 pounds of vegetables and cooked over 120 pounds of pasta, giving our chefs the ingredients they needed to prepare meals for about 600 people the next day."
During the past four Decembers, the OSS team has donated their personal resources and time to a local organization they choose to support. Assistant Dean for Graduate Students Lauren Gagliardi, who several years ago originally introduced the idea of volunteering as a team to her colleagues in OSS, said, “This idea came from my time in Jesuit education, where service is at the foundation of our work. When I arrived at Rutgers, I was eager to bring a similar approach, even on a smaller scale. How can we provide service to the community we work and live in? Elijah's Promise is a pillar of the New Brunswick community, and we knew we wanted to work with them.”
Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Students Meghan Ingstrup, who responded to Gagliardi’s initial idea by suggesting they donate their time to Elijah’s Promise, said, “I have had a lot of experience with Elijah's Promise dating back to when I was an undergrad at Douglass. I provided the OSS team with an overview of how they serve the community in which we spend our time. We researched volunteer opportunities with EP and decided to move forward with that organization.”
Ingstrup said she also knew their contribution would be highly appreciated and valued, because “Elijah’s Promise has a very small staff; they rely on the service of volunteers. We are not unique in what we did that benefited EP. Each and every EP volunteer allows EP’s very small staff to accomplish work that serves and enriches the lives of so many people in our surrounding communities. It is work they could not accomplish if not for volunteers.”
In recent years, the OSS team has supported Elijah’s Promise by gathering supplies EP suggests on the “Virtual Volunteer Opportunities” page on their website, because the team could not volunteer there in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ingstrup said, “In past years, we would collect money and purchase supplies for utensil bundles, and all sit together, listening to holiday music, connecting with one another while assembling the bundles. Then a small group of us would drive to EP to drop off the completed bundles.”
This year, when Gagliardi suggested they volunteer at Elijah’s Promise in person for the first time, she and Ingstrup arranged the team’s visit by collaborating with Chef Chrissy Banks.
Traveling to EP and working there was a much more fun, rewarding, and fulfilling experience, Ingstrup said. “This year was so exciting! We arrived and started out as a group - getting introduced to the kitchen space and the different roles. Then we were split into two teams - the prep team and the cooking team. Each team learned from Chef Chrissy and then worked together. There were eleven of us, and we volunteered for a 2.5-hour shift. As EP put it, ‘SC&I Student Services provided 22 helping hands over 2.7 hours to make 600 meals!’”
Describing the significant contribution the OSS team made on the day they volunteered, Chef Chrissy Banks said, “Working with the Rutgers SC&I volunteer group was an incredible experience! Seeing so many individuals show up, ready to volunteer, (on their days off) is a blessing for our community. Seeing all the volunteers so committed to making a positive impact in the community is truly inspiring."
Describing the significant contribution the OSS team made on the day they volunteered, Chef Chrissy Banks said, “Working with the Rutgers SC&I volunteer group was an incredible experience! Seeing so many individuals show up, ready to volunteer, (on their days off) is a blessing for our community. Seeing all the volunteers so committed to making a positive impact in the community is truly inspiring. It’s a blessing to witness such kindness and dedication, and it reminds me how strong and valuable Elijah's Promise partnerships are. Their support not only lightens the workload but also reinforces the power of community coming together for a shared purpose.”
How much food did the OSS team prepare? Chef Chrissy Banks said, “The Rutgers SC&I volunteer group made a real difference for the guests we serve. 1 in 9 people in New Jersey faces food insecurity, according to Feeding America. That day, volunteers cleaned and cut nearly 400 pounds of vegetables and cooked over 120 pounds of pasta, giving our chefs the ingredients they needed to prepare meals for about 700 people the next day. When the food truck arrives to our scheduled stops, our guests know they have a meal they can count on—that kind of support goes a long way.”
Noting that the act of giving is extremely rewarding, Ingstrup said, “While I can say each one of us enjoyed the time we served and the meals we made, only each of us individually can speak to what we gained from the experience. For me, it was service to our larger community and creative team building within our group. Life can be hard, the semester can wear us down, and service to others can promote happiness, bring some perspective back to us, create stronger relationships, and boot self-esteem. Helping others always helps me!”
Learn more about the Office of Student Services at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.
Photo: Courtesy of the SC&I Office of Student Services
Elijah’s Promise Chef Chrissy Banks noted there are many ways SC&I students, staff, and faculty can support Elijah’s Promise in addition to volunteering, including:
