vcsusquashharvestValley City  (CSi)  VCSU students and area volunteers harvested more than 65,000 pounds of produce on a farm owned by Dan Faust on Thursday, September 29, 2016. The effort of the students—freshmen enrolled in the Learning to Live, Living to Learn (L2L) class along with their upper-class mentors—will benefit those in North Dakota served by the Great Plains Food Bank.

Nancy Carriveau, food resource manager for Great Plains Food Bank, says the squash, corn, tomatoes and cucumbers harvested that day—almost two double-stacked semi-loads—will provide the equivalent of 54,343 meals.
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Valley City (CSi-VCSU)  Valley City State University freshmen and their upperclass mentors will harvest squash on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016 at an area farm for distribution throughout North Dakota via the Great Plains Food Bank.

About 215 VCSU students—as part of their Learning to Live, Living to Learn (L2L) class—will be bused to a farm northwest of Valley City owned by Dan Faust, a retired Lutheran pastor. There they will join with community volunteers organized by Faust to pick squash and other farm produce and load it onto semi-trailers for the Great Plains Food Bank, which will then transport the produce to food shelters and community pantries for use by those in need throughout the state.

This is the sixth year for the annual project; last year the group harvested 61,000 pounds of produce for the Great Plains Food Bank.

vcsu-squash-harvest-2015< Here, a VCSU group, including President Tisa Mason, poses at the 2015 harvest gathering