Scott Brummit Profile

Dressed in worn jeans and a faded flannel shirt, Scott Brummit hustled through the corridor of Sycamore Hall rushing to his next class with an overstuffed bag of books. Like many other undergraduates Brummit possessed an eagerness to learn and not enough time available to him. Yet at 26, Brummit had little else in common with the average student. A double major in philosophy and religious studies, he had attended classes intermittently for the past four years, but had not completed a degree. That did not bother Brummit, who was still working toward his diploma. Rather, he enjoyed the opportunity to take classes while thriving on his 50 hour per week managerial position at the Bloomington Community Kitchen. As one of three full-time staff members at the non-profit center that served lunch and dinner to community members, Brummit coordinated nearly 100 volunteers while finding time to help prepare, serve and clean-up meals. "I thrive on my work at the Kitchen. It is fulfilling to me in a spiritual, intellectual and emotional way," he said. Senior Amy Hazel, a three-year volunteer at the Kitchen, said Brummit was the motivating factor of the center's success. "Scott is always busy it seems like he is doing 50 billion things at one time, and you know that they all are [done] to benefit the Kitchen and people he works with," Hazel said. "Yet, he still takes time to talk to everyone, volunteers and patrons alike. He greets everyone and sincerely asks what's going on in their lives. "Most of all, his smile gives his motive away," Hazel said. "You can tell that he really loves what he does." Brummit said his work at the Kitchen helped him to understand the lives of the homeless. He said he believed understanding was necessary to remedy social ills. "I see the Community Kitchen as a training ground for myself," he said. "There are lots of people who have the ability to point the finger at what they think is wrong, whether it be poverty or homelessness, but they can never do anything to fix it." It was only through empathizing, and then innovating, that Brummit believed he would be able to make a true difference. "Working at the Kitchen has made me informed. I have come to realize that before any individual can become an artistic, moral and intellectual person, they need to have their needs met," he said. "It's criminal not to have those needs met here in our country." Even before Brummit earned his position as the Kitchen manager in 1993, these ideals guided his political and community activism. Brummit arrived in Bloomington in 1992, disillusioned with two years of electrical engineering training and six months as an electrical apprentice. Concerned with the problems of poverty and homelessness in Bloomington, Brummit and three other friends established the Peace and Justice Center downtown. "We were trying to consolidate and form a network for all local activists," Brummit said. "We figured that if people could cooperate and share ideas, then they could transform this community into a tremendous place," he said. Brummit ran a coffee shop in the Center and allowed patrons to trade work for free food. Gradually, though, he said his enterprise became a gravy train for the homeless—in addition to wanting odd jobs, the patrons also wanted a place to stay.

"I had no idea Bloomington had such a homeless problem. I hadn't realized it when I first came," he said. Because of his generosity, Brummit's enterprise soon went out of business. About that time, he recalled, the Community Kitchen was kicked out of the Monroe County Building and wanted to use the Center. Brummit began to volunteer at the Kitchen and stuck with it when it moved to 917 S. Rogers, even serving food out of the back of a van. "When I came to Bloomington, I was looking for meaning. I realized that I finally found it in a life of service. I tried, and am still trying in some small way, to make the world a better place," he said. Brummit continued to innovate and make positive changes in the community. After training in small agricultural projects in the Peace Corp, community member Emily Schabacker approached Brummit with the idea of forming a cooperative that could grow hard-to-get produce for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank and the Kitchen. With Schahacker's help and the cooperation of the Food Bank and Shelter Inc., Brummit started a community farm for the Kitchen. "I approached Scott with the idea in January," Schabacker said. "We began to bounce ideas off of each other and gradually the plans for the cooperative took shape. "Scott played an enormous role in all of this," Schabacker explained. He has a lot of contacts and a lot of respect from the non-profit and social service community. With his ties to these people, he was able to make this work." After talking to members of the community, Brummit discovered the feasibility of the project. He then quickly envisioned it expanding to include public training in agriculture, nutrition and gardening. "The dream would be to make it into a cooperative, to form a home for patrons on which they could work by growing and selling products. The benefit would be that they could share the profits, but the best part is that they receive fantastic entrepreneurial education," he said. "It could really grow into a solid income for people who might not otherwise have it."

Brummit was most excited about the prospect of creating a sustainable source of income and employment for

Scott Brummit, junior and kitchen manager at the Bloomington Community Kitchen, demonstrates kitchen techniques in the food preparation area. As a community activist, Brummit worked more than 50 hours per week at the Kitchen, volunteered his services to other local groups, and helped to initiate a local farming cooperative. Photo by Monty Howell.

the Bloomington community. "No one should have to rely on just the Kitchen for their sustenance. They should be able to attain it for themselves. My work is not just a matter of giving others fish, it's about teaching them how to fish." Schabacker said, "Scott is just amazing. He is motivating both intellectually and morally. He did all of this work on the project on his own time, in addition to all of his work at the Kitchen. Without him, I know that there is no way the project would be off of the ground." Amazingly, Brummit also spearheaded a youth environmental service project. He taught 11 to 18-year-olds about recycling and conservation and then encouraged them to develop programs for local businesses. He was also extremely active in the Coalition for Homeless Citizens and donated his time to working as a payee for a mentally handicapped individual in the community. Although Brummit admitted he was not the average undergraduate, he said that in many ways his work was not so divorced from his life as a student. "I really try to integrate the two. My greatest frustration is seeing the impact the University and I, as a student, have on this community when we drive local wages down and housing costs up," he said. "But that frustration is my greatest challenger and motivator. I try to be a sounding board; I'm really trying to make other people aware. I want to affect a change."