Tucked away to the left of the Mashuda Hall front doors, down a dark and desolate driveway, is the entrance to the Neighborhood Kitchen. A buzzer hangs on the wall next to the door for any visitors or volunteers looking to enter.
Every morning, Christine Little makes her way down the secluded driveway and into the kitchen, where she takes a seat in her office, checks emails and makes a to-do list. At the front edge of her desk sits a glass award from 2022 that reads “‘Difference Makers,’ Christine Little and the Student Executive Board—Backpack Program.”
Little has worn many hats as both an undergraduate and graduate college student in Mississippi, an intern in North Carolina, a nanny in New Jersey and a postpartum doula in New York. Her lifelong passion for wellness eventually brought her to Milwaukee, where she now oversees Marquette University’s food insecurity aid programs.
The Neighborhood Kitchen that Little superintends operates under the Arrupe Center for Community Service & Social Responsibility and serves to reduce food waste, engage in hunger relief in the Milwaukee community and create nutritious meals for Marquette students in need.
“I really support Christine Little and the amazing work that she’s been doing for the past five years,” Jess Verdejo, director of the Arrupe Center, said.
Refrigerators and shelves stocked with food and toiletries line the walls of a tiny, repurposed bathroom on the first floor of Mashuda Hall. In this room exists the Backpack Program, the Neighborhood Kitchen’s food pantry that provides groceries and necessities to Marquette students who aren’t able to access these items affordably.
“You’re in college to get your degree, and you can’t get that degree as effectively if you’re struggling with food,” Little said. “If you need a little extra support in school, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Little’s hope is to expand the space for the Backpack Program soon. Last year, the food pantry received around 650 visits from Marquette students. This year, she said that number already surpassed 1,100 in October.
Bridget Clark is a senior majoring in environmental science who began her experience with food waste last semester as a Marquette sustainability intern. After seeing how much food was being thrown away by students, she knew she wanted to make a difference somehow.
Clark said Milwaukee is a food desert, an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable fresh food, and that Marquette can address this issue by serving individuals in areas with lower socioeconomic status who are disproportionately affected by this lack of access to healthy food.
“I think that it is our role as an institution to distribute our resources to the community around us. And I think that’s what the Backpack Program aims to do,” Clark said.
Aside from reducing food waste on campus and giving out hundreds of meals and care packages through the Neighborhood Kitchen, Little has a direct impact on the people who work with her.
“You may have just a 30 second interaction with [Little], but she’ll make you feel like you’re the world,” Verdejo said. “She just has a beautiful heart, and I’m so grateful that she works at Marquette.”
On the personal side, a current goal of Little’s is to change the narrative at Marquette of food insecurity being something inherently negative.
“There is a lot of stigma towards food insecurity on campus, because it’s a predominantly white, very privileged campus,” Little said. “I think helping students reframe that and understand that can help lessen some of that stigma.”
Little also wants students to know that anyone is welcome to take advantage of the Neighborhood Kitchen’s resources, including those who are already receiving other aid. Regarding Marquette’s Ignatian value of Cura Personalis, which means “care for the individual person,” she said it is the university’s responsibility to help everyone in any way possible.
“If you’re a human being, you have a fundamental right to food and you don’t have to prove that,” Little said.
This story was written by Mia Thurow. She can be reached at [email protected].
