By Emily Pia, senior in Biobehavioral Health
The new Student Farm Club kicked off its first meeting on Thursday, September 3!! 40 students, representing 7 different colleges and 15 different majors came out to talk about all things student farm. Over apples, chips and salsa, pita chips, hummus, pickled zucchini, and Creamery cheese, everyone introduced themselves and got to thinking about their stake in the student farm.
Leaders of the club – Keirstan Kure (President), Hayly Hoch (Vice President), and Carissa Heine (Secretary) and club adviser Leslie Pillen – prompted everyone in attendance to answer questions about what food and food systems meant to us and what more we wanted to learn. We wrote our ideas on sticky notes and stuck them on the walls of the room, showing a diversity of students’ interests.
Then, everyone at the meeting split into two committees: one focusing on the agriculture/production side of the Student Farm Initiative and one focusing on student farm promotion, education and civic engagement. Committee members shared their ideas on how to further student farm efforts and increase Penn State student participation. The Production committee discussed the timing of crops that could be grown on the farm and the profit margin that can be made off each. Hydroponic crops, for example, can be grown year-round, and be harvested and sold to Penn State Dining Commons. Hydroponic Crops are currently being grown in the ASI greenhouses and will be featured at Redifer Dining Common’s Local Food Night on September 22. This will help to connect Penn State students to fresh and local foods and raise awareness for the Student Farm Initiative.
The Outreach and Education committee organized students interested in raising awareness about local food issues and engaging the entire State College community in the Student Farm Initiative. Ideas were shared about potential campus events that could be hosted by the Student Farm Club, including a food waste demonstration outside of the HUB, documentary screenings, a community cooking collaborative, and much more.
Members of the Outreach and Education Committee discuss ideas for connecting to the campus and State College communities to raise awareness and engagement with our food system.
If you think all of this sounds as awesome as we do, and you think you might like to be involved in the Student Farm Club, too, come out to our next meeting! We’ll have an interactive discussion about what is a food system, and continue the committee discussions this Thursday, September 9. We’ll have a general meeting next Thursday, September, 16. We hope to see you there!