Student Farm provides fresh produce for area food pantries

The shutdown of Purdue’s campus had some unintended positive impacts on the local community. For example, when the Third Street Suites Starbucks closed, they decided to make a generous donation to the ACE Food Pantry, located in the basement of the Baptist Student Foundation (also known as The Found). 

“We got this lemonade concentrate that was a huge hit,” says Marly Beck (A’20), the outgoing student director at the pantry. “Everyone has been really generous. We’ve received donations from the Purdue Student Government and the Graduate Student Government because they know how this can affect the community.” 

Because of the influx of donations, the pantry has been able to supply its clients with meat, which isn’t normally available. A local farm has also been delivering eggs every other week. ACE Food Pantry, which is open to anyone in the Purdue community — clients only need to show a Purdue ID — also received generous support from the Purdue Student Farm.

“We’ve been able to donate spinach, lettuce, and some herbs,” says Christopher Adair (A’12), farm manager. “The spring has been helpful. It’s been kind of long and drawn out. The lettuce and spinach do better when it’s not 90 degrees.” 

As of late May, Adair estimates that the farm has donated up to 2,000 lbs of food to the ACE Food Pantry. But they’ve also donated food more broadly across the community, including to Food Finders, ACE Food Pantry’s parent organization across the river in Lafayette. 

“We don’t normally get the green leafy vegetables that people want,” says Kier Crites (HHS’03). “Normally the donations we get from retailers are on their last legs. Having freshly bagged produce was fantastic. It goes out the door immediately.”

Crites is the chief philanthropy officer at Food Finders, which operates across a multi-county region in North Central Indiana. 

“We’re seeing about 30 percent of people coming who haven’t had to ask for assistance before,” says Crites. “Thankfully, about 95 percent of our partners have stayed open and are still serving their communities.”

At both ACE Food Pantry and Food Finders, operations have changed significantly since March. 

“Instead of our typical setup where people browse the shelves, we have people drive up — or walk up or bike up — to the door,” says Beck. “We have a student volunteer stationed there with a white board of everything that’s available. They take orders, text the information down to the pantry, and then volunteers bag up the orders and bring them upstairs to limit contact. “We’re glad to be a choice-based pantry and we want to maintain our clients’ ability to have that choice.”

The Purdue Student Farm is currently operating with eight students. Thankfully, says Adair, they have been able to largely maintain normal operations. 

“Generally, with the harvesting and washing, everyone’s wearing gloves and facemask coverings,” says Adair. “At times, people tend to forget the social distancing, so it’s important to remind them not to stand right next to each other. You tend to already be farther apart. That makes it easier, but you still find at times folks are getting a little too chummy.” 

Being able to maintain some sense of normalcy at the farm has been a boon for Adair. 

“It’s been really nice to be able to continue operating when all these other staff have been sent home or aren’t able to do their regularly scheduled activities. Even before the pandemic, there’s something really rewarding about nurturing plants until they produce a tomato. It feels nice, it’s really rewarding.”