Student-chefs spice up Gruft's kitchen

A warm meal can go a long way to making someone's day just a little easier - that's the principle that led a team of student volunteers (part of the MU Cares charity program) to the Gruft's soup kitchen for the homeless. Enthused by a previous charity cookoff to help refugee asylum seekers, students arranged to take over the soup kitchen in the basement of the Barnabitenkirche on Mariahilferstrasse for an afternoon. 

After some intense negoatiating chili con carne was chosen as the main dish with the family of student Natalie Hood graciously providing home-baked banana bread for dessert. After a heavy-duty shopping spree at Metro (cooking for 150 guests takes a lot of food!), the team met at the church on a cool Saturday afternoon. After unloading the over 50kg of ingredients and donning their dashing plastic aprons and paper chef hats, the students set about preparing the meal with the help of the knowledgeable and kind staff at the Gruft.

Three giant-sized batches of chili later, dinner was ready to be served. In all, about 150 servings were heaped out to the clients who regularly visit the Gruft for food, shelter and social services. The students very much appreciated the round of applause they received from the dining room guests as they left!

Special thanks to the wonderful staff at the Gruft for helping out our team, and to students Ioana Benea and Nikolaus Wendl for donating the transport for the food and arranging the visit, respectively. The MU Cares cooks look forward to returning to the Gruft again soon!

If you would like to make a donation to help make that possible please contact the Student Service Center at ssc@modul.ac.at.

Check out more pictures from the event on our Facebook page!