Patroon Land Farm Shows the Benefits of Food Banks Growing Their Own Food

Blog| September 17, 2024

Patroon Land Farm Shows the Benefits of Food Banks Growing Their Own Food

byJennifer Fahy

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Across the country, many food banks have realized the benefits of growing their own vegetables to ensure that the food-insecure individuals and families who rely on them have access to healthy, fresh food in addition to shelf-stable essentials. The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, whose service area encompasses 41% of the landmass of New York State is one of those innovative food banks that also grows their own food. Farm Aid spoke with Regional Food Bank's Chief Operating Officer Nick Pisani about the farm, the food it produces, and the impact this food has not just on the food bank's clients but on their entire community.

"Food connects us," Nick states as he explains that 100% of the food grown on the Regional Food Bank's farm, Patroon Land Farm, goes to the clients of the Food Bank. But the fresh, nutritious food it produces is only part of the farm's value to the Regional Food Bank. Nick says, "The farm has a multi-prong approach, and, actually, its major impact is to connect the community." So if you're keeping count, one prong is healthy food, another prong is community connection. The third? Nick describes the farm as the main component of the Food Bank's educational work. "School groups are among the many groups of volunteers who come out to the farm," he explains. "Through that volunteer work, they receive exposure to food production-many of them for the first time. They begin to understand how people can do that work to sustain themselves. Most folks in our society aren't exposed to agriculture. Coming out and volunteering on the farm gives them an opportunity to understand what it takes for food to get on the grocery shelves."

The Patroon Land Farm has a storied history, founded in 1923 as a dairy farm. In 1997, Pauline Williman (the dairy farmer's daughter) protected the farm's 162 acres to ensure it can only ever be farmland. In 2001, Pauline founded the Patroon Farm Foundation and began growing produce on a large scale to donate to the Food Bank. Nick explains, "Pauline was doing it all on her own-supporting her community by growing vegetables-and eventually it became too much work. Pauline and the Food Bank agreed that the Food Bank would take over management of the farm."

Though that was before Nick's time with the organization, he feels that it was likely a no-brainer. "That being said, there are challenges because it's agriculture and there are always challenges," he acknowledges. "The farm, for instance, is not right at the Food Bank and so we have staff there and staff here at our headquarters. We have very few full-time staff who run the Farm-just four people-so we really depend on volunteers." That can also be a challenge. Nick explains, "One day we might have two volunteers and the next day it can be a group of 300! A focus of our work now is to forecast as much need as we can-both in labor and crop demand.

On an annual basis, the farm grows about 100,000 pounds of food. That's a huge contribution, but the need is so great. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that in 2023, a million more Americans were food insecure than in 2022. In 2023, 13.5 percent (18 million) of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during 2023, meaning these households were uncertain of having or unable to acquire enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food. This marks the second year of increasing food insecurity.

Patroon Land Farm grows as many as 25 to 30 varieties of crops, including squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, corn, cabbage, onion, garlic and more. The farm grows items that are often not donated. "And of course, lots of cucumbers and tomatoes," Nick says. "Because everyone loves those!" In addition to the fresh produce that is grown right on the farm, the Food Bank works with many local farmers from whom they purchase produce or receive donations.

"During apple season, we receive a lot of apples. Some farmers might overproduce a crop or have a purchase fall through. We work with the Nourish NY Initiative, a New York State program through which we can buy directly from farmers. We also have the pick and pack out program which makes use of the so-called "seconds" that farmers often cannot sell to a wholesaler." These programs are a win-win-win: farmers benefit from earning a price for their products that they otherwise might not have found a market; the food bank's client base benefits by accessing good healthy food; and good food isn't wasted!

Like all farms, climate change has presented a challenge for Patroon Land Farm. Nick shares that conditions have definitely improved this year over last, which featured drought and then suddenly too much rain. Over the past few years, the Food Bank has been able to put in a lot of new infrastructure that has been helpful in making it more resilient, including high tunnels, which help with irrigation and also deterring pests like deer; greenhouses, which can extend the growing season and help deal with water supply; an irrigation pond that helps to retain water that can be used for irrigation; as well as a pack house to get the food washed and packed for transport to the Food Bank. The Food Bank has also recently begun to cultivate a Freight Farm, a shipping container greenhouse that can grow the equivalent of 3 acres of greens! The Freight Farm is focused on meeting its community's cultural needs by growing greens like tatsoi, mustard greens and kale.

As Nick says, "Food connects us," and Patroon Land Farm is a crucial tool to make community connections and to help people make their own connections between the food in the field and the food on the grocery shelf.

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