Beginning in 2022, the Bucknell Farm has hosted an annual “Earth Day Fest” to celebrate the earth and our community’s connection to it. In addition to the earth itself, the event celebrates and thanks the student farmers and volunteers on staff at the Farm and showcases the many projects completed by that staff over the preceding year. This will be the fourth year of the Earth Day Fest — Jen Schneidman Partica, the Farm and Garden Manager, recognizes that the Farm staff “work[s] hard together throughout the year” and considers it important and great that they “take time for joy and celebration.”
Professor Mark Spiro of the biology department engages with the Farm as the farm faculty director and considers Earth Day and the Farm’s celebration of it to be representative of the Farm’s commitment to sustainable practices and environmental awareness. “Earth Day was founded over 50 years ago out of concern for pollution and ecological degradation, much of that caused by agriculture,” he says, but “the Bucknell Farm employs regenerative organic practices that produce nutritious food while strengthening our natural systems.” Students in attendance of the Farm’s Earth Day Fest will get a close-up look at how the Farm operates and how they themselves are able to participate.
“Student Farmers love to show off the farm to others by giving tours of the farm” throughout the year, Schneidman Partica says, and the Earth Day Fest incorporates those tours into its activities. This year, though, “we have a lot more activities than we’ve had in the past, including student and community organizations leading activities and student bands.”
In terms of what students should expect at the event, Spiro encourages students to come prepared for “joy!” and “connection with people and nature!” Activities include opportunities to take part in growing mushrooms, rock painting and planting and enjoying freshly-prepared farm-grown food.
The Bucknell Farm’s Earth Day Fest takes place on Friday, April 25 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. “Every day can be Earth Day” in the words of Spiro, so even beyond the event itself, “let’s keep celebrating and caring for the Earth!”
