Campus Farm unveils mobile farm stand

University of Michigan students and community members lined up to purchase produce from the new U-M Campus Farm mobile farm stand Thursday afternoon. Previously operating from a tent in front of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the now-mobile stand will sell seasonal vegetables and fruits to U-M community members on South Ingalls Mall every Thursday from 12-3 p.m. 

The mobile farm stand was constructed out of wood sourced from fallen cottonwood trees on North Campus. Environment and Sustainability senior Lauren Jones, Campus Farm Stand manager, said students constructed the trailer throughout the winter 2024 semester with the guidance of Joseph Trumpey, Art & Design and Environment & Sustainability assistant professor. 

“(The University) had to cut down some cottonwood trees on North Campus, and in order to really bring home our notion of sustainability, we reused those trees to make the siding on the outside,” Jones said. “Joe Trumpey led the construction. He had a couple of classes, and he had his students work on that as well. So you can safely say that students were the constructing hands of the trailer, which is really, really cool.”

The Campus Farm Stand is a collaboration between the U-M Sustainable Food Program and the U-M Campus Farm, which is located in the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and grows the produce sold at the stand. 

LSA senior Navya Yagalla, Campus Farm Stand engagement manager, told The Daily that she believes the new location provides more accessibility for students to purchase fresh produce. According to Yagalla, they hope to take advantage of the new mobility of the farm stand to expand their reach across campus. 

“We just wanted to have a location that would have a little bit more foot traffic and be accessible to people that are coming in from different areas of campus,” Yagalla said. “I think in the future, since it is a trailer, we would like to be able to take advantage of that mobile aspect and maybe expand our areas of outreach to places like North Campus and to places that also are feeling that lack of access to sustainable produce, but don’t currently have access to the Farm Stand.”

Jones said while it is unlikely that the Campus Farm Stand begins operating on North Campus this year, she hopes it will be a reality for them in the near future.

“There’s a lot of things that we would need to work out, like labor and what day we do it, and what materials we’d send up to North Campus,” Jones said. “But it is definitely a priority for the Farm Stand in the future. … Moving into this trailer has been a fantastic undertaking, and it’s also been a whole new frontier, and we’re right now, at least for this season, we’re getting our roots down.”

Yagalla said the team values student feedback and used it to provide products that students wanted but could not easily access on campus. 

“We really try to prioritize when we’re thinking about what crops we are growing, what students want and what students can’t currently access on campus,” Yagalla said. “Last year, a lot of the feedback that we got was that people did want fruit. … So this year, we have cherry tomatoes, we have strawberries, we have things that even if you don’t have a kitchen at your house, you can just take them and eat them as is.”  

Yagalla said the team is collaborating with other organizations such as the U-M Campus Farm Club, which offers students opportunities to work at the Campus Farm, and she hopes to expand to more student organizations.

“In an ideal world, we want to maximize the usage of the Farm Stand as a platform for the organizations that we’d like to support, lift up and collaborate with,” Yagalla said.

In an interview with The Daily at the Campus Farm Stand, Engineering sophomore Genesis Sanchez said she decided to visit the stand for the first time because she enjoys supporting local produce.

“I was just walking by from the Diag and saw it,” Sanchez said. “It just looked so cute, so I wanted to stop by and check it … I feel like it’s more organic and better for you, so I enjoy that. The prices aren’t that bad either.”

Taubman senior Jasmine Paulk, who also visited the Campus Farm Stand, told The Daily she feels like the mobile farm stand has helped increase awareness about the organization.

“I really like the way that it’s a gathering space now, especially having a trailer form, it draws a lot of attention,” Paulk said. “It’s in a different location this year, and I see it catch people’s eyes, and then come and gather around it and get to meet new people, which is really cool.”

Daily Staff Reporters Eilene Koo and Christina Zhang can be reached at ekoo@umich.edu and zchristi@umich.edu.

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