By Lindsay Troyer
It all started with some donated zucchini starters in the middle of the pandemic. Lindsay Troyer, was a graduate student at Delaware Valley University when the pandemic and lock down hit. The school had a large community garden, where Troyer volunteered and had to temporarily abandon, as she and everyone else tried to desperately figure out what was next.
Abandoning the hard work already put into the community garden did not feel good to Troyer, so with permission from DVU, she came back to campus to keep growing food. After finding some neglected zucchini starts (47 to be exact!), starting some seeds, and receiving donated transplants from the horticulture program, she began planting out the community garden. As a student interested in Food and Agriculture Policy, with particular interest in helping increase access to local, fresh food to fight hunger – growing all of this food during such a monumental time in history didn’t just feel like the right thing to do, but it really solidified her purpose.
That season, the Good Folk Project was formed, with the intention of growing food for 100% donation, and better connecting folks to our local farmers or connecting them to “farmland” to increase access to our local food supply. The beginnings of Good Folk were taking shape, and while completing a masters degree, Troyer worked with other local nonprofits to further understand the needs and serve our hungry neighbors. What she noticed most was the want for fresh, local food was extremely high for these community members, but the cost was unmanageable. The solution was simple: grow more food for free.
Growing food for free (or even as a farm business!) is challenging, as one can expect for a variety of reasons. One major issue is food- and farm-workers struggling to make a living wage. Another hurdle is finding land to grow on. Troyer persevered through these issues to keep Good Folk going by finding wonderful volunteers and community members to help with the cause.
Thanks to the congregation and community at Pebble Hill Interfaith Church, their enormous (yet fallow) community garden was offered as a homebase for growing food for Good Folk. This space has a long history in donating fresh produce for their community, which made it the perfect fit. Re-establishing the soil, repairing the fencing, adding compost and nurturing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of plant starts was made possible only through the many farm friends and local businesses seeing value in and wanting to contribute to these efforts. Thanks to these folks, Good Folk Project is projecting to grow a few 1,000 lbs of food this year!
But the Good Folk Project is only getting started. They are connected to the CommUNITY Peace Garden at the Tile Works in Doylestown and have supported the Frenchtown Farmers Market and Studio Rt29 as a fiscal sponsor. Additionally, The Good Folk Community Kitchen is a pop-up concept where Troyer hosts a “Sandwich Club” or meal prepping for ready-to-eat meals to directly serve the kids and families that utilize our local community fridges and pantries. “The more the community can come together over making a shared meal, for themselves and for others, the stronger our community will be,” according to Troyer.
In addition to Good Folk’s current growing spaces, Troyer says she is always looking for spaces to expand into; whether that’s helping a community start a community garden, help support a prior space get back to growing, or starting fresh with an institution or faith-based organization that has the land and the same desire to feed our neighbors. The long-term goals for the organization would be to develop a large non-profit farm that offers opportunity to young and beginning farmers to get their feet wet growing while adding accessible, fresh food into our local food system.
Troyer, who is attending law school, says she wants to be a resource for the farmers in our area, and others who work hard to support our food system. “If Good Folk can offer resources, legal services, educational opportunities and actual, free food to the community, then we’ve made it.” Until then, Good Folk will be focusing on fundraising to help support the purchase of secure cold storage and transportation, along with being able to fund weekly Good Folk Community Kitchen events, open to all community members to help feed our community. “I know first hand that we have good folks in our community and the only way to make it better is together.”
You can learn more about the Good Folk Project on their website. You can follow them on Instagram (@goodfolkproject and @goodfolkcommunitykitchen) and Facebook (Good Folk Project), and reach out at Goodfolkproject@gmail.com.
They already received such incredible support from the community and would love to acknowledge their sponsors thus far! Special thanks to:
- Kona Compost
- Sparks Industries
- Hollow House Farm
- Roots to River
- Tinicum CSA
- Pie Bird Farm
- Tom from Flocktown Farm
- And all the volunteers, including our friends at The Next Steps in Doylestown!
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