Strength in Numbers: Clarke Community Comes Together for Local Cause
On August 30th, 2026, Clarke Men's Volleyball and professors Chrissy Bartels and Sunil Malapati joined Project Rooted, a movement dedicated to providing fresh food to children in need, at the Boys and Girls Club for their annual Rooted Table event. This event brings together all members of the Dubuque community in not only celebration, but promotion of a better future.
Project Rooted was founded in Dubuque by co-owners Whitney Sanger, an advocate for health, and Kevin Sharpf, the owner of Brazen Open Kitchen. Together, Whitney and Kevin put their strengths together and started Project Rooted in order to build a healthier future for the kids in the community. The Project Rooted team puts on events centered around the sentiment of “uplifting the world one fresh meal at a time.”
On August 30th, the Project Rooted team held The Rooted Table at Dubuque's Boys and Girls Club. The Rooted Table is a community focused night of celebration dedicated for members of the community to share a beautiful 5-course-meal together. This annual event is put together by the Project Rooted team in an effort to not only bring the community together, but to also celebrate the people in the community who make Dubuque the city it is. The event was open to all, even those in the community who didn’t purchase a ticket. Tickets for the event were sold at $100 per adult and $25 per child, but the action of buying a ticket was completely optional and only for those who wanted to financially support the cause. This event relied heavily on volunteers who performed an abundance of tasks including serving, bartending, cooking, and dishwashing to make the event operational.
Over one hundred people from all over Dubuque came to volunteer for this special night, including members of the Clarke community. Clarke professors Chrissy Bartels and Sunil Malapati aided in the event as volunteers. Alongside the professors, the Clarke Men's Volleyball team also volunteered at the event as servers. Each member of the team was assigned to their own table and was able to get personally connected with members of the community. This event brought these Clarke professors and students to the heart of what makes Dubuque special: a tight-knit and active community.
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