Local Farms Bring Community Flavor to the Village at Penn State

“This place is amazing for the food,” said Rosalie Dietz. She should know. As head of the Food Committee at The Village at Penn State, Dietz makes it her business to understand her fellow residents’ tastes. “I think one of the draws of The Village is the high standard we have for food. Not only the high standard, but the variety.”

Making more than 350 tasty meals every day doesn’t happen by accident. It begins in the kitchen with the vision and philosophy of Duane Leitzell, The Village’s Director of Dining Services. “From day one, we’ve done things a bit differently,” he said. “We’ve taken a restaurant quality approach. We’ve always operated as a scratch-made kitchen. And we make local, fresh, seasonal items work within our daily offer.”

The Village’s location on Lions Hill Road in State College makes it ideally situated to source from local farms and businesses, including Hogs Galore, local Amish markets, and the Student Farm at Penn State. Since breaking ground in 2016, the student farm has enjoyed a special relationship with The Village, providing freshly harvested produce—including tomatoes, corn, lettuce, kale, and zucchini—that Leitzell incorporates into the menu’s weekly features. “They email us a product list on Monday, and we have it on the loading dock by Tuesday afternoon,” said Leitzell.

“Once the corn starts coming in, everyone loves to get their corn at dinner time,” said Dietz. “In the summertime, we always have a salad of the week. It’s a huge tomato that you can get stuffed with ham, tuna, or chicken salad. And I mean, people wait for that!”

The benefits of the student farm being so close go far beyond taste and freshness. The relationships between the residents and students, the opportunity for residents to volunteer, and the pastoral surroundings foster deep community connections. It’s something that Dr. Lam Hood, former Dean of the College of Agriculture at Penn State, has known ever since his childhood on a sixty-cow Holstein dairy farm in Bucks County.

“You walk out of the building, and you see this farm. Residents become quite interested in what’s going on down there, and over time they have engaged residents to volunteer,” said Hood. “It’s kind of an interesting interactive process. We see the farm as a reminder. We have it on our plates, and then we see what we’ve done.”

Hood’s cottage overlooks the student farm, which he helped keep going during the pandemic by serving as the oldest AmeriCorps volunteer at Penn State. Many residents of The Village also harvest vegetables, dig out weeds, and help wherever they are needed.

“When the corn comes in, about ten of us shuck corn,” said Dietz. “It’s a social moment and we get work done. We go through a lot of corn!”

Both Hood and Dietz are proud of the relationship The Village has with the students. “We invite the students up for ice cream, and the folks at The Village, because of their obvious connection to the University, love to be around students,” said Hood.

At the social, students introduce themselves, share why they are working on the farm and what they do, and let residents know how they can get involved. “It’s always nice to have interaction with the students,” said Dietz.

Hood agrees. “It helps cement the relationship between The Village at Penn State and the student farm. And I love it, too, because I spent my whole life doing that sort of thing.”

Good food offers a unique way to strengthen our bonds with each other and the community. By sourcing products from local farms and embracing fresh, seasonal ingredients, Duane Leitzell’s kitchen provides both delicious meals and a means of fostering deeper connections with the community.