To kick off Earth Week at Augustana, Augie Acres hosted a bake sale in the Brew from April 22 to April 25 and raised $500 for a local nonprofit social enterprise. All proceeds were donated to Tapestry Farms, a Davenport-based farm that employs refugees and provides fresh produce to people facing food insecurity.
Formerly known as the Local Agriculture Society, Augie Acres is the college’s one-and-a-half-acre student garden located on 6th Avenue, down the street from the Lindberg Center. The student-run, urban farm grows a variety of fruits and vegetables, along with native flowers, to help feed the campus community.
Augie Acres also gives any excess produce to the local community through churches and organizations like NEST Cafe. Every Sunday, the group has a work day in the garden and meets at 11 am.
Junior Ian Empen is the president of Augie Acres and said the bake sale marks the beginning of the group’s efforts to further their outreach in the local community. Empen said the sale was the first fundraiser the group has ever held for an off-campus organization during his time here.
“The whole campus is starting to hear our name, and they’re really supportive of our mission, which I really appreciate. I think as the support becomes more pronounced for us, we’re not necessarily needing these funding sources for our club purposes,” Empen said. “So, we want to be able to use our influence on campus to give back to these nonprofits.”
Originally, Empen said the funds raised from the sale were going to go back to Augie Acres to help purchase seeds. But thanks to a donation from an Augustana Alum, he said the group was able to give back to the community, which led to their decision of donating to Tapestry Farms.
Augie Acres has collaborated with Tapestry Farms before and completed a service project at one of their dozen urban farms last fall in Davenport, Empen said. The two organizations are also both a part of the Food Rescue Partnership, a Quad Cities coalition that aims to limit food waste.
“Another reason I think this bake sale is especially important is because with the current administration, Tapestry Farms is seeing cuts to some USDA [United States Department of Agriculture] programs that help them connect their fresh produce to food pantries,” Empen said.
Director of Community Engagement at Tapestry Farms, Leslie Klipsch, said approximately 10% of their budget was made up of federal funding that has now been lost. She said their organization received cuts to funding from the USDA and social services.
Through the USDA, Klipsch said Tapestry Farms would grow and sell produce to food banks, deliver it to public schools and other food-insecure places and raise money for their organization. However, she said this program is no longer supported by the government.
“The donation that we receive from Augie Acres will be a direct investment in our families. We will use that money for the basic necessities of housing, transportation, food and medical care,” Klipsch said. “[These items are] all of the things that our families need on a regular basis, so it’s a really important gift.”
Junior Phoebe Fuller is Augie Acre’s social chair and helped sell baked goods such as Oreo balls, cookies and green and blue dyed, earth-shaped cereal treats. All items were priced at $3 a piece or two for $5, she said.
Fuller said a big part of Augie Acres mission, like Tapestry Farm’s, is fighting food insecurity. She said it’s important to remind students of issues people face outside of campus walls.
“As a college and community, we are kind of in our own little pocket. And, a lot of people on campus come from different places where maybe food insecurity isn’t as big of an issue,” Fuller said. “But in the Quad Cities, where we are living, there are people who are facing food insecurity and poverty, making it harder for them to access good, clean food.”