Houston students want a kitchen and leftovers to feed disadvantaged neighbors​

HOUSTON — A group of University of Houston students wants to start a "Campus Kitchen" to recycle leftover food from campus restaurants for families in need in the nearby Third Ward.

The students are competing for a $5,000 grant from the "Campus Kitchens Project."

At UH, food is left over every day at the dining halls at numerous restaurants across the university. The students want to take that food and recycle it into new meals for residents in need, said Ton La Jr., a biology senior who is part of the group.

"Looking at the Houston Third Ward community, it is incomprehensible to know that thousands of university students never have to question where they can go to eat, but that only seconds away from the university, you will meet people who are malnourished, have little money to spare, and who are likely to spend that money on fast food which is of little nutritional value," La said in an email.

With about nine supermarkets per 100,000 people, Texas has the lowest rate of supermarkets per capita of any state, La said. More than 47 percent of Third Ward families live in poverty, La said.