Cooking for a cause: Winthrop students prepare meals for the hungry on MLK Day + video

College students aren’t known for their cooking skills, but the recipe these Winthrop University students were working off of Monday didn’t present too many challenges.

Thirty students crowded the kitchen of First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church to put together a meal of spaghetti, salad and Rice Krispie treats for desert. The meals, along with those prepared by other teams cooking at St. John’s United Methodist Church and Freedom Temple Ministries, were shared with hungry residents across Rock Hill as part of the school’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

It was one of a dozen service projects that 300 student volunteers – from Winthrop, York Tech and Clinton College – took part in, giving back on what would otherwise be a day off from class.

“It’s an easy way to give back,” said Micahla Thomas. “It’s too simple not to. You just show up.”

But volunteers don’t pick which project they want to work on. Junior Janay Reece, a veteran of Winthrop’s Service Day and a team leader on the hunger project, only found out what her group would be doing on Friday, and her classmates who handled the food were randomly assigned to the project that morning. But Reece wasn’t too worried about her team finding their way around the kitchen.

“We’re in college, so hopefully, they’ve learned how to cook,” she said.

Zuri Anderson was quick to get some water boiling for the pasta and noodles on the church kitchen’s stove. The rest of the team didn’t take long to find their place in the production chain either.

“I think our group gets along pretty well,” she said. “I already know a fair amount of the people here, but it’s a good way to make friends.”

After cooking the morning meal, the students crowded into Winthrop-provided vans to deliver their work to different locations around town. The product of the ARP kitchen team was taken to low-income seniors at Willowbrook Crossing.

“Some of our residents aren’t able to make their own meals, either because of health reasons or they just can’t stand at a stove,” said Anne Marie Shortino, Willowbrook’s service coordinator. “They’re happy to get a meal any way they can.”

Elsewhere, another group of students cut homemade scarves out of cloth, then tied them around downtown light poles with a note inviting anyone in need of some warmth to take it.

“We got a crash course in how to make a high-quality scarf,” said Shaquille Jenkins.

“You slice and tie and that’s it,” his friend Ethan Snipes chimed in, tying off the ends of his latest work. “You couldn’t tell these were done by novices.”

Snipes is part of a scholarship group that has a community service component, so the junior is a regular participant in MLK Day projects.

“But this is the first one I’ve done something indoors,” Snipes said, “so this is pretty great.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Cooking for a cause: Winthrop students prepare meals for the hungry on MLK Day + video."