duke farmers market

Since being an upperclassman in high school, I have maintained a fervent passion for sustainability, agriculture, and eating local food. I ultimately discovered this interest within my role in my school’s agricultural organization as I spent three years planting, harvesting, and donating produce to a local food pantry. When I left my hometown for University, however, I felt this devotion slip away from me as the opportunity to do what I loved became less prevalent in my everyday life. To defeat this feeling, I decided that I would create and host the first student-run farmer’s market comprised of local vendors.

I started contacting a variety of restaurants and farmers throughout the Raleigh-Durham area telling them about my proposal and obtaining their advice. Once gauging interest, I reached out to the Vice President of Student Affairs, Facilities Management, and Parking and Transportation services in order to gain approval and essentially create the event from nothing.

An on-campus farmers' market means fresh food at the fingertips of every student. Locally sourced food is fresher than the conventional transnational produce found in supermarkets, which means it is tastier and more nutritious. A market will inevitably promote the benefits of local and sustainable agriculture, support and encourage a holistic view of nutrition and personal health, and develop a community engaged in these topics. This opportunity allowed me to not only revive a passion within myself, but also provide my community with accessibility to something that is not readily available to them. Read more about my process here.

green roof and orchard workforce

On the roof Duke’s Environmental School, GROW has begun to manage communal green spaces in order to promote awareness, community development, and the understanding of functions and benefits of building-integrated green space. While allowing for students, faculty, and staff alike to connect, this organization also allows individuals to discover an interaction with the environment in ways that most have never been exposed to. I am a member of this organization - find out more about our work here.

balsam farms

In the summer of 2017, I was granted the opportunity to work at Balsam Farms in Amagansett, NY. It had been something that I wanted to do since I graduated from high school, but I had put it on hold due to the challenges of immersing myself in a new college environment. On a typical workday, I would perform many physically challenging activities such as cultivating soil, sowing crops, transplanting flowers and ensuring that weeds do not take over the crop patch. I also assisted in deliveries, direct transportation of fruits and vegetables to the farm stand, organization of produce and general farm maintenance. Although it is not a certified organic farm, I got to see how to grow produce in accordance with organic principles and how to keep the soil we utilize healthy and fertile. The days were long and tough but I found myself truly enjoying the time I spent on the fields and with the other workers who had been working there for years before me. Besides working out in the sun all day picking potatoes and weeding, I got to see all the action behind how a successful farm stand operates on a daily basis. I not only witnessed but also assisted with the entirety of the process all the way from harvest to purchase. Through this brief but eye-opening experience, I believe that I got to truly experience what it was like to be a field laborer on a much larger scale.

brunswick agricultural society

This truly served as the beginning of my agricultural journey, and I look back very fondly on this plot and the two years I spent with it. Before 2015, The Brunswick Agricultural Society was merely a name whispered throughout the halls with a Dead Poets Society mystique. The community-service driven group was wiped out well before our time, a victim of flashier new interests like Robotics - but its roots were clearly still there. One day over lunch, my friends and I determined that the time was right to band together and restore the presence of the school garden. We tended to it, gave it water, nurtured and ultimately came to love it. While I’m certain the feelings we felt for a community of squash, tomatoes, collard greens, and carrots were a little unusual for a group of upperclassmen boys, I came to look forward to my time in the garden more than anything else. At the end of the summer, and in collaboration with Neighbor to Neighbor (a nonprofit organization serving residents in need within the Greenwich area) we donated our produce to low-income families within our community.