CU students mentor Girl Scouts for Loaves & Fishes fund-raiser

From left, Girl Scouts Kathryn Durnford and Kelly Jirka; Taylor Reiss, a Cornell engineering major from Balch Hall; Cornell Professor Barbara Knuth; and Girl Scout Caroline Jirka decorate bowls for the Loaves & Fishes Empty Bowls Dinner, Oct. 16. Matthew Dearing, Dynamic Patterns Creativity Group Inc.

By Susan S. Lang

When Loaves & Fishes, a local community kitchen that feeds more than 120 people free each weekday in Ithaca, has its Empty Bowls Dinner Saturday, Oct. 16, some 85 bowls decorated by local Girl Scouts, working with Cornell first-year students and their resident advisers, will be donated to the fund-raising event.

More than three dozen Cornell first-year students and their resident advisers living in Balch Hall this year and last have been mentoring about 35 local Girl Scouts, ages 9 to 15, including juniors, cadettes and seniors, as they decorated and glazed soup bowls at Dynamic Patterns on the Ithaca Commons.

"One of my passions and commitments is community service, and as a faculty-in-residence for Balch Hall with two daughters in the Girl Scouts, I wanted both my students and the Girl Scouts to see how important volunteering can be," said Barbara Knuth, professor and chair of natural resources in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell.

With a grant from Cornell Development, awarded by the Faculty Programs in Residential Communities Committee, Knuth partnered her Balch students with Girl Scouts, a United Way member agency that serves more than 800 girls in Tompkins County, including 36 girls who live in Hasbrouck Apartments, Cornell graduate student housing for international students.

"This way, the first-year students could serve as role models for the younger Girl Scouts, the Girl Scouts could gain some insights into the life of a college student and Balch students could learn a bit about the Ithaca community and provide a service of benefit to its residents," Knuth said.

On the day of the event, which is expected to raise about $5,000, the Girl Scouts and several dozen Cornell students will help set tables and wash bowls at Loaves & Fishes; the older Girl Scouts and Balch students also will act as servers and hostesses.

Cornell supports Loaves & Fishes in other ways, as well. "I am awed by the participation of students and faculty in their support for Loaves," said Chris Pothier, a 1986 Cornell graduate in human ecology who has been executive director of Loaves & Fishes since 1986. She noted that dozens of Cornell students and staff volunteer at the soup kitchen each semester.

In addition, seven members of the Cornell community serve on the Loaves & Fishes board of directors, including: Martin Wells, professor of biological statistics and computational biology; Lucy Fisher, extension associate in international programs; Ted Clark, associate professor of microbiology and immunology; Steven Carvel, academic dean of the School of Hotel Administration; Ed Kokkelenberg, adjunct professor of applied economics and management; Sharon Dittman, associate director of community relations, and physical therapist Christine McNamara, both with Cornell's Gannett: University Health Services.

Tickets for the Empty Bowls Dinner are $30 to $50, depending on ability to pay, and they are available at Handwork or Loaves & Fishes. Participants select a handcrafted bowl at the event and then enjoy a meal donated by Cornell Dairy, Cornell Statler Hotel, Ithaca Bakery, Gimme Coffee, Littletree Orchards, Moosewood Restaurant, Greenstar, Maxie's Supper Club, the Boatyard Grill and Cayuga Lakes Wineries.