Freeville research farm donates surplus to food banks

Homer C. Thompson Vegetable Research Farm in Freeville has a long history of contributing to Cornell University’s agricultural research, but this year, with its research load decreased, it had the opportunity to divert its efforts to feeding those in need.

Thompson Vegetable Research Farm, managed by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES), supports work by Cornell faculty in vegetable crop research, including plant breeding, fertility rates and disease analysis, as well as growing crops under organically managed ground.

Farm Manager Steven McKay, a longtime Cornell employee, described the origins of the Freeville farm.

“Back in the day, the vegetable gardening department on campus had some research plots up Maple Avenue,” he said. “In the early ’60s, this site was discovered. It was a group of several individual farm enterprises here in this area, and Cornell made their first land purchase, I believe, in the early ’60s. Then, over the course of the years, it’s expanded. We have a little over 270 acres here now to support the work across multiple departments.”

Jennifer Thaler, professor of entomology in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, spoke of the farm’s importance to the college.

“It’s just been a great place for us to do our work for almost the whole time I’ve been here at Cornell,” she said. “We have other places on campus too, but it’s really nice because two reasons: The staff are fantastic and super helpful, and they have nice soil.”

The 2020 growing season began at the start of the pandemic hitting the county, leading to a significant shift from typical practices right out of the gate.

“At the beginning of the growing season, administration made it clear to faculty that they needed to respond to employee and student safety regarding COVID, as well as administration and staff of the Experiment Station,” McKay said.

The research farm went through a hiring freeze to better focus its efforts around maintaining staff safety and increased cleaning protocols and to reduce interaction between staff members. The farm also implemented a 50% reduction in fieldwork this year.

“Some research programs put their research on hold for this year and [are] planning to come back next year, and some couldn’t do that because they had started a year or two previously, and the research was ongoing over a three- or four-year period,” McKay said.

The growing season went well despite the change in practices, McKay said, and the reduction in fieldwork meant the team there could also help out with a food donation effort from Cornell.

“It can be challenging for us to target food donations when we have a 100% research-support agenda,” he said. “The fact that [research] was reduced allowed us some opportunity to respond where we saw some surplus and where we saw some interest in faculty.”

According to a Cornell Chronicle article on the project, Antonio DiTommaso, professor and chair of the Soil and Crop Sciences Section in the School of Integrative Plant Science, also had to downsize his field trials this spring, leaving him with 1,800 surplus cabbage seedlings. DiTommaso then connected with Thompson Vegetable Research Farm, which then planted and cared for the cabbages until they could be harvested and donated.

Members of Thaler’s insect biology class and workers at the Dilmun Hill Student Farm in Ithaca also worked with McKay to organize two gleaning events this fall, where 20 students harvested 8 tons of potatoes.

The Thompson farm donated more than 22 tons of farm-fresh food to the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, including peppers, beets, pumpkins, onions, tomatoes, squash and potatoes.

Food donations from Thompson Vegetable Research Farm went toward a 37-ton donation facilitated by farms run by Cornell AES to feed families in need. The donation, Thaler said, was spearheaded by Cornell graduate student Nick Aflitto.

“First, he asked Steve McKay at the farm whether we could use the land for growing the food,” Thaler said. “Steve was super supportive and offered to help with the land maintenance, the plowing and the planting and tractor time and stuff like that.”

As previously covered by Tompkins Weekly, food insecurity has increased during the pandemic, causing food banks like the Food Bank of the Southern Tier to see a significant increase in food requests. McKay said he was glad he and his staff got the chance to help in that effort.

“That’s really not our mission to be here,” McKay said. “But in the pandemic COVID situation and the environment we found ourselves [in], we found some people that were empathetic and had some extra resources, and we had some time and land. And so, we made a go of it.”

Thaler expressed a similar sentiment, adding that the 37-ton donation project was also a chance for Cornell staff to help those in need.

“Some people didn’t feel economically vulnerable because of the pandemic but knew that other people really were economically vulnerable,” she said. “[They] were seeing all of the food shortages that were going on, and people couldn’t get to the grocery store. And the food that people wanted to eat wasn’t in the grocery store. And so, I think people were just really worried and wanting to help other people.”

With the growing season over, the Thompson Vegetable Research Farm is working on packing things up for the winter. McKay said that plans for the future, just like this year, are centered around the pandemic.

“We’re already starting to plan for what our needs are for next year and how we’re just going to continue in response to COVID and staff and staff safety and personnel safety,” he said. “It’s kind of an ongoing target that presents its own challenges for everyone you kind of interact with and meet, but that’s kind of where we are right here right now.”

In Brief:

Free Community Thanksgiving Day Dinner

This year, the Freeville United Methodist Church’s annual Thanksgiving dinner will be takeout only, by reservations. You can call the church at 607-844-8760 and leave your name, phone number and number of dinners requested to reserve your meals. You will receive a call back confirming your reservation.

Pickups start at 1 p.m. Nov. 26 at the church, 37 Main St. in Freeville. Please stay in your car. Masks are required. Donations and help are greatly appreciated. Contact Susie Eggleston at 607-280-1277 if you’re interested.

All are welcome. Take a break from all that cooking and treat yourself with a free dinner.