The farm is a hands-on learning environment for low-input, environmentally and economically sustainable food production. In addition to horticultural skills, student workers develop applied skills in safe food handling, farm infrastructure design, implementation and maintenance and marketing. 

The farm employs student workers to run the farm throughout the year to maintain production 9 months of the year. The farm hires at the beginning of the summer and the beginning of the fall semester. The farm also offers opportunities to come help out at the farm* (click here for our volunteer sign-up page).

We also do experiments and trials on farm both with campus researchers, IL extension and for our own information.

The farm has an internship program during the summer and hosts classes for labs and activities.

We offer tours of the farm and workshops on topics relating to organic/sustainable agriculture and vegetable production to the campus and local community. To schedule a tour Please email us at illinois-ssf@illinois.edu!

We host an annual Field day in September featuring great food from dining services and tours of our farm.

We produce crops for the campus community mid-May through December and for year-round use in the residence halls in partnership with Dining Services. We grow around 30,000 lbs of produce annually much of this to produce tomato sauce, hot sauce and pumpkin puree with the Pilot Plant .