The Farm at Stonehill

The Farm at Stonehill is an initiative of the May School of Arts and Sciences and seeks to live out the college’s mission by:  

1. Helping those in need, providing access to fresh, nutritious, locally grown food to area food pantries, meal providers, health clinics, and resource centers.
2. Enriching Stonehill academic and service endeavors by engaging in environmental, social, and food justice.

Farm Overview

Grown from a desire to address food insecurity in our communities, The Farm at Stonehill was created in 2011 after former Vice President for Mission and faculty, Paul DaPonte, was inspired following a day of service in our neighboring city, Brockton, MA. He and several Stonehill students accompanied residents with limited access to healthy food and fresh produce, and a desire to help address food insecurity was born.

The Farm yields 10,000 to 12,000 lbs. of fresh, organic produce each year on nearly 2 acres of land. Many varieties of vegetables, fruits, and flowers are grown at the Farm and include popular items like potatoes, onions, beans, greens, strawberries, basil, and sunflowers. Vegetable varieties are chosen based on nutritional value and popularity among recipients, who are surveyed each season.

For the first five seasons, the entire harvest was donated to four community partners: My Brother's Keeper; The Table at Father Bill's & MainSpring; The David Jon Louis on Center of The Old Colony YMCA; and The Easton Food Pantry. The Mobile Market was launched in 2016 in partnership with Brockton Neighborhood Health Center (BNHC). The partnership with BNHC further allows The Farm at Stonehill to live our mission of helping those in need and offer access to nutrition with fresh, seasonal produce. 

Students who work on The Farm and with our Mobile Market do more than grow and sell fresh, organic produce. They grow intelligence, friendships, and community while serving young mothers and senior citizens, as well as populations of Verdean Creole, Haitian Creole, Ecuadorian and Spanish.

Year after year, our favorite crop to cultivate is HOPE for healthy relationships with our partners and funders supporting the work we do for our community!

Reflections On Our 12th Season

The first season on the Farm, for me, felt like a win, despite some extreme weather. We are growing much more than produce; we are growing a revolution of community-based intelligence, hope, and a local, thriving food system!

The following annual report provides an overview of our 2022 season and goals for 2023. And looking ahead, you will hear more frequently from the Farm as we develop a weekly newsletter informing our community stakeholders of what’s in season!

With deep gratitude, I thank you for your continued support and dedication to our program. 

Thank you,
Laurie Mooney 

2022 Season Snapshot

• 80 varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs
• 180 volunteer hours worked
• 7,600 lbs. of produce grown and donated
• $1,200 in honey sales 

Growing Infrastructure

The summer of 2022 became increasingly hot and dry, therefore heighten our need for efficient water use. We created an automated, underground irrigation design, executed construction, and by mid-July, efficiently irrigating all our fields through the night!

We also purchased a walk-behind tractor to create a permanent raised bed system, which minimizes tillage and brings permanence to annual vegetable production.

More Honey!

We added five more bee hives with the help of our beekeeper, Kevin O’Donnell, and newest apprentice, Brother James with a late August harvest and honey sales of nearly 200 lbs! Honey remains on sale through The Skyhawk’s Store in May Hall and our Farm’s online store: Farm Honey: Autumn's Ambrosia 

Growing Intelligence

This summer we enjoyed the collective knowledge of three students and a Holy Cross Seminarian who supported our efforts as summer farmers and Mobile Market coordinators.  

Together we supported and helped one another through the best and worst of days. We set morning intentions and enjoyed completing our days with a reflection on what we learned, experienced, and felt.

Please enjoy learning more about our 2022 Summer Farmer community by reading their profiles below!

The Farm as a Classroom

The Farm continued to support learning and provide hands-on experiences as many different classes and academic programs visited us this year.

• Professor Corey Dolgon’s Sociology Course attended often for service hours. 
• Professor Sarah Gracombe’s Moreau Honors Students spend a few times a year volunteering on the farm to learn some skills and spend time together as a program. 
• Father Tim Mouton’s First Year Experience program brought all freshmen to the Farm for an educational tour, as well as made fire cider with farm ingredients!
• We harvested and packaged nearly 60 lbs. of produce for Professor Monique Myer’s Happiness and Communications class. Together, we donated to the David Jon Louison Family Shelter and the Bolton Place Family Shelter.
• Father Stephen Wilbricht’s Religious Studies classes arrived for weeding, pruning, and trellis work. We continue to improve our vineyard for small batch winemaking for Commencement Eucharist. 
• We grew flowers for Professor Candice Smith-Corby's Fine Arts class to create natural-colored dyes and garments revived with natural farm colors!
• The Farm co-hosted events with Intercultural Affairs and the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Social Justice.

Additional Farm Engagements with Campus Partners    

The Farm also supported additional learning opportunities for groups and organizations outside the classroom. 

• The Stonehill College Football team came for an end-of-season volunteer service and team building.
• The Farm hosted Annual tours during Stonehill’s Homecoming Weekend for alumni and friends of the college. 
• The First Annual Harvest Party, co-hosted with the Environmental Science Department, offered time for students to mingle, paint or carve a pumpkin and enjoy locally produced treats. 
• Farm Fridays are the best! We open every Friday from 2-4 pm for volunteering. This time is open for students, staff, and faculty to come offer their service in friendship.
• Our Seed Library lives on thanks to former assistant farm manager Celia Dolan ’19 as a project in its 3rd year. Saving seeds is a cultural form of heritage and vital for our farm.

Growing Community through the Mobile Market

With the summer heat, we enjoyed a bumper crop of eggplant this season! It was a huge hit at our food pantry outlets and weekly Mobile Market adventures! Special thanks to Tam for giving them extra care through some trying moments of the season. 

We also experienced a growing community with Brockton Neighborhood Health Clinic every Wednesday for $2 bags of fresh, nutritious, and colorful produce. We offered a nice variety of staple crops and items for fresh at-home cooking as well as tested the waters with uncommon items like Kohlrabi. 

In the beginning, we had a lot of explaining to do! What is this thing? You can eat that? How do you prepare it and what does it taste like? With some funny looks, a little trust, and lots of laughs, friendships developed every week, and we now have requests for this funky-looking, tasty crucifer called kohlrabi!

Thanks to the InnerSpark Foundation, in 2022 we were able to do critical fixes to our Mobile Market van and purchase supportive fruits and vegetables from neighboring farms in our efforts to supply access to better nutrition for our communities in need.

With positive attitudes and collective hope, our 2022 season was a true success. 

Thank you for your support of our 2022 season at the Farm, and look forward to sharing more as our 2023 harvesting season gets underway!