The Arboretum at Penn State is on track to break a record this fall as its annual harvest for the State College Food Bank nears completion. With nearly 1,900 pounds of fresh produce donated so far this year, staff and volunteers say the total could surpass the Arboretum’s all-time high of 2,116 pounds set in 2023.
Each week since summer, a team of volunteers has gathered at the Arboretum’s gardens to harvest vegetables, fruits and herbs that are delivered the following day to the food bank. The donations provide a steady supply of fresh produce to local families facing food insecurity. Last year, the Arboretum delivered just under 1,500 pounds, but this year’s harvest is already well past that mark — with two months still to go.
“We have a core group of gardener volunteers who come in often every week,” said Aubrey Tallon, volunteer program manager for the Arboretum. “They help us not only with the planting and maintenance of these food crop plants, but also with the harvest and then their subsequent delivery to the food bank as well. So the whole operation is kind of volunteer-assisted from start to finish.”
The crops are grown in the Arboretum’s pollinator and children’s gardens every spring, where corn, lettuce, radishes, spinach, squash, Brussels sprouts, peppers, beans, onions and dozens of other plants are cultivated. This year’s harvest has also included less common donations, such as okra, green tomatoes, kale and jalapeño peppers — all well-received by the food bank.
Tallon said the Arboretum typically hosts 10 to 15 volunteers per session, with around 50 to 80 individuals cycling through the program each year. Many are Penn State students, while others are community members who return regularly to lend a hand.
Although growing food may not be the Arboretum’s primary goal, the program has been a component of the garden for more than six years and fits in with the outreach and extension objectives of the garden in terms of interacting with the larger local community
“I love our volunteer program because I think it gives a really great way for the Arboretum to connect to our community,” Tallon said. “We spend a lot of time doing educational outreach and that sort of thing, but volunteering is a great way that we can not only bring community members, whether they’re Penn State students or locals, into the fold here at the Arboretum, but also give them skills in return.
“It’s a great way to learn new things…It’s a really great opportunity for folks from all backgrounds to kind of find an equalizing thing that they really can enjoy doing, and learn some skills in the process.”
For Travis Wilcox, horticulturist of the Arboretum’s pollinator and bird garden, the experience has been rewarding in his first year with the program.
“It feels really good to almost beat the record of harvest in my first year,” Wilcox said. “Working with the volunteers is great. This is one of their favorite things to do, is come out here and harvest for the food bank. I think it’s one of the more fun things you can volunteer to do.”
Harvest days take place every Tuesday morning, with volunteers gathering crates, tools and boxes before collecting and cleaning the crops. Deliveries are made the following day to the State College Food Bank at 169 Gerald Street. The process continues weekly into November, when the final harvest of thousands of edible pumpkins and gourds concludes the season.
The donations are a vital source of healthy food for local families, said Arboretum staff, and reflect a longstanding commitment to community engagement. With harvesting still underway, the Arboretum may set a new milestone before the year’s end.
“It’s very difficult to understand the ways that food processes work and food production cycles work if you don’t have any practical experience,” Tallon said. “So really, just being exposed to the experience, being exposed to watching people do this sort of agricultural work gives people a better idea of what that looks like in practical application and what that might look like at larger scales.”
For more information about volunteer opportunities at the Arboretum, visit arboretum.psu.edu. Details about the State College Food Bank and its services are available at scfoodbank.org.
