The Tabler Farm program staff include Farm Technician Daniel Speck, Farm Coordinator Madison Hale and Sustainable Agriculture Program Director Peter Vila. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — At the end of last month, Shepherdstown Shares announced the continuation into the second year of its food pantry’s relationship with Shepherd University’s Tabler Farm, thanks to an $8,000 COVID Emergency Funding Grant from the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia.

The grant funding will be paid to Tabler Farm, which will then provide organic produce for Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry’s clients, throughout the 2022 growing season.

“[In 2021], Shepherdstown Shares reached out to Shepherd Farm in an effort to help our program grow and get their outreach base access to local, fresh, organic produce. The arrangement that is underway [for this year] was established based on several meetings between Shepherdstown Shares and Shepherd Farm,” said Shepherd University Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Tabler Farm Sustainable Agriculture Program Director Peter Vila.

“Shepherdstown Shares will receive produce on a weekly basis for the entirety of the 2022 growing season, March-through-November,” Vila said. “The collaboration was trialed in the year of 2021, and the farm produced over 1,000 pounds of produce for Shepherdstown Shares from June-through-November. The farm expects to double that production in 2022.”

According to Vila, this relationship has allowed Tabler Farm to doubly do good, not only through its own personal focus on sustainable agriculture, but also through ensuring 25443 residents are eating a healthy diet.

“Shepherd Farm is in a unique position — it operates under Shepherd University and offers degree programs in sustainable agriculture. The focus of the farm is education and research in sustainable agriculture. An important objective is training and research is agricultural production,” Vila said. “Collaboration of Shepherd University with Shepherdstown Shares provides the farm an outlet for some of its production, and also provides the farm with opportunities to engage in the local community.

“Locally grown, organic, fresh produce provides families the opportunity to enjoy nutritious food that is difficult to obtain. Produce grown for grocery stores are primarily grown for long shelf life, not quality, and are often shipped from very far away,” Vila said, mentioning a similar relationship has been established with the Shepherd University Food Pantry for students. “By providing this service, families have access to higher quality food.”

According to Vila, Shepherdstown Shares has been given the freedom to decide what species of produce will be grown for its food pantry. The choices of vegetable varieties were the determining factors behind the amount of funds granted by the diocese, Vila said, along with the production costs of being provided with produce over a long growing period. The grant was originally for a set $5,000, which the diocese then generously agreed to increase to the $8,000 Tabler Farm was requesting to finalize the arrangement.

“The funding will go to support seasonal labor and a summer internship for increased vegetable production. The seasonal laborer will assist in the growing and processing of crops for the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry. The summer internship will provide a Shepherd University student enrolled in the Sustainable Agriculture Program with a hands-on opportunity to be a part of a working farm. The intern will be trained in small scale organic vegetable production and have an opportunity to do a specific agricultural-related research project of their choice,” Vila said. “This will be the first internship opportunity of its kind at Shepherd Farm.”