Eye Street Revisited: Recalling the Origins of the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga—80,000 Meals Later

I recently had a chance to catch up with Mike Curtin, Class of 1982. Among other things, we marveled how 12 years had passed since Gonzaga became the first high school in the nation to join the Campus Kitchen Project, a program that works to reduce food waste by repurposing and repackaging excess food into meals to be delivered to the poor and homebound.

Mike at the time was Chief Operating Officer of D.C. Central Kitchen (he's now its CEO) and it was his idea to bring what had been an exclusively college-based program to Eye Street. Inspired by his own service experiences on Eye Street, and especially influenced by his friendship with Father Horace McKenna, S.J., Mike believed Gonzaga and Campus Kitchen to be an ideal match. In a 2006 article in The Good News From Nineteen Eye Street called “Together in Mission,” Mike said, “I cannot wait to see Campus Kitchen grow at Gonzaga and be the model.”

Mike’s sentiment proved prophetic. Since joining Campus Kitchen in 2006, Gonzaga students and faculty have collected, prepared, and delivered over 80,000 meals to the poor and homebound living in around the neighborhood.

Click here to read the original article that appeared about Campus Kitchen in the Good News. 


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Eye Street Revisited is a new history column written by Danny Costello '72 that will be featured on Gonzaga's website and shared in the Eye Street Headlines. By revisiting articles from past issues of the Good News From Nineteen Eye Street, as well as photos and other Gonzaga memorabilia, we hope fond memories are sparked and a mission reaffirmed. We welcome your feedback and ideas—if you have a subject you'd like us to feature, please email Danny at dcostello@gonzaga.org.