Food Justice

In the Community

With limited access to grocery stores, the West Ward neighborhood in Easton is considered a food desert. To help address this issue, Lafayette’s 3-acre farm, LaFarm, works to provide produce to the local community through partnerships with the Kellyn Foundation, local food pantries and the Easton Urban Farm. Other campus efforts, such as the Food Recovery Network, also seek to bring prepared foods to local food pantries on a regular basis. 

On Campus

To help provide food to students who are food insecure, Lafayette has a food pantry on campus, called Pard Pantry that offers free food to students on campus. Learn more about Pard Pantry location and open hours.

LaFarm also hosts a farm stand on campus in the summer and fall months, where students, faculty and staff can purchase fresh produce. Students pay on a pay-what-you-can basis.

Affordability & Access

In the Community

Through Green Move Out, new or gently-used items that students no longer can take with them or don’t need are donated. These items are collected, sorted, and distributed to local non-profits and a pay-what-you-can community sale called the West Ward Sale. Over the years, relationships with non-profit partners have developed, allowing for continual support for item distribution throughout the year. Learn more about this effort on the Green Move Out website. 

On Campus

Items remaining from the West Ward Sale are brought to the Campus Thrift Store, where they are distributed to students through a pay-what-you-can model throughout the year.

Education

In the Community

Throughout the year, sustainability education is offered to students in the local community through youth programming from clubs, classes and the Office of Sustainability. In the summer, earnings from the West Ward Sale are used for a Sustainability Summer Camp for K-5th graders, offering sessions on campus and at LaFarm about food sourcing, environmental education, innovation, and community involvement.

On Campus

Throughout the academic year educational programming and classes on campus focus on sustainability issues, with an increased emphasis during Sustainability Month in October and Earth Month in April. Learn more about events on campus and sustainability in academics.