Concordia’s minister for faith and spirituality in action, Deacon Jon Leiseth, has helped his CSA (community supported agriculture) with an end-of-the-year harvest for several years, but there was always more work than hands to help collect all the food, until this year, when he asked Concordia students to get involved.
Leiseth and Luke Young ’24, the Campus Ministry business manager and intern with Campus Sustainability, were able to round up volunteers to harvest squash at Bill Erbes Farm near Colfax, N.D.
“I'm a farm kid, so I take delight in being outside and participating in something like a harvest,” Leiseth said. “I also take delight in folks doing that when they maybe have never done that before.”
Together the group harvested approximately 2,600 pounds of squash that was donated to the Great Plains Food Bank and Churches United.
“I was impressed that this group would give up their free time to come out and do this when there's no profit – there's no reward other than doing something nice for someone else,” said farm manager Austin Wittmier. “It was wonderful to see college students seeing the impact that it makes. One small deed trickles into another and another.”
Unharvested squash is tilled back into the soil, and while Wittmier says that’s good for the soil, he still had more than enough foliage left over. Fewer seeds in the ground also helps prevent plants from popping up in unintended places next spring.
Young says he hopes the event continues next year because it provided a unique opportunity to address food insecurity and fight food waste while strengthening relationships with fellow Cobbers and the broader community.
“Instead of merely learning about these issues at Concordia, we were able to get out and address these problems,” Young said. “Students are the ones who make the Concordia campus community, and they one day will influence their own communities outside of campus. Engaged citizenship is a practice that springboards Cobbers toward producing meaningful change in our world.”
