Weekly Veggie Box Subscription (May-September)
St. Isidore Farm’s Weekly Veggie Box subscription includes a market value of $36 in sustainably-grown, in-season produce, all grown by Guerin Catholic students and volunteers on Guerin Catholic grounds and is available May – September. Additionally, this CSA program will allow St. Isidore Farm to donate at least 10% of its weekly produce to target local food insecurity in our community.
If you have any questions, please contact Zach Haselhorst, Farm Director, at zhaselhorst@guerincatholic.org.
Learn more about the 2024 Veggie Box Subscriptions
Location and Purpose
The Farm is located on Guerin Catholic’s beautiful 72-acre campus, and it hosts a summer internship program, an elective course, and a summer camp for younger students. Students and student interns get hands-on experience growing organic vegetables, and all the while they learn about regenerative agriculture, modern food systems, and the interconnectedness of God’s creation.
St. Isidore Farm donates the first and best 10% of its weekly produce to target local food insecurity. The remaining food goes to the Farm’s Veggie Box customers, who are typically members of the Guerin Catholic community. The Veggie Box program is a CSA consisting of a weekly box of fresh, in-season produce from May to September.
No other high school in Indiana – private or public – is doing something quite like this. In three seasons, St. Isidore Farm has donated over 2300 pounds of fresh organic produce to local families; it has engaged 110 students in the internship and/or elective course; and it has filled over 1000 weekly boxes of fresh produce for its customers. Guerin Catholic is a leader in hands-on ecological education.
In the future St. Isidore Farm hopes to feed more people, divert the school’s food waste, lead food workshops, and grow flowers for a Mother’s Day sale. Please contact Mr. Zach Haselhorst, the Farm’s director, at zhaselhorst@guerincatholic.org for more information.
Internships
Any Guerin Catholic student, from incoming freshman to just-graduated seniors, is eligible! This is a potentially life-changing summer experience, where students learn the value and the skills involved in growing great food for a great mission.
This can help build up a solid work resume, will satisfy all academic school year service hours, and can earn one elective course credit! It is also designed to be a flexible experience, so that students can still enjoy their summer vacation.
How it works:
- Students agree to accumulate at least 60 hours of farm time throughout the summer
- This is about six hours each week, if averaged across the whole summer
- Students sign up for regular farming time slots, usually during weekday mornings
- Flexible: Students can still have part-time jobs, go to athletic practices, go on a family trip, etc.
Benefits:
- Build an expertise when it comes to working on a farm and growing great produce
- Build up an impressive work resume with solid references
- Gather experiences for college and scholarship essay material
- Be part of a community of students working toward a great mission
- Satisfy all service hour requirements for 22-23 school year
- Earn one elective course credit
This is offered as a summer school course, where students can earn that course credit through this experience.
In 2015 Pope Francis issued his papal encyclical letter titled Laudato Si’, which is translated to “Praised Be,” a reference to St. Francis of Assisi’s famous prayer of praise for Creation. The encyclical’s subtitle is “On Care for our Common Home,” and in the document Pope Francis exhorts Christians to view humanity and the natural environment as deeply interconnected and interdependent.
Below are some selections from Chapter Six: “Ecological Education and Spirituality.” This papal encyclical, and especially the following excerpts, serve as the inspiration for St. Isidore Farm’s mission and vision.
Only by cultivating sound virtues will people be able to make a selfless ecological commitment. A person who could afford to spend and consume more but regularly uses less heating and wears warmer clothes, shows the kind of convictions and attitudes which help to protect the environment. There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions, and it is wonderful how education can bring about real changes in lifestyle… Reusing something instead of immediately discarding it, when done for the right reasons, can be an act of love which expressed our own dignity.
Laudato Si’ 211
We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world. They benefit society, often unbeknown to us, for they call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread.
Laudato Si’ 212
Ecological education can take place in a variety of settings: at school, in families, in the media, in catechesis and elsewhere. Good education plants seeds when we are young, and these continue to bear fruit throughout life.
Laudato Si’ 213
All Christian communities have an important role to play in ecological education. It is my hope that our seminaries and houses of formation will provide an education in responsible simplicity of life, in grateful contemplation of God’s world, and in concern for the needs of the poor and the protection of the environment.
Laudato Si’ 214
Mission Statement
St. Isidore Farm is a school farm business inviting students and the community into ecological education, sustainable food systems, and food justice
Vision Statement
A school deeply connected to God’s creation
Contact
If you have questions about St. Isidore Farm, please contact Mr. Zach Haselhorst, Farm Director, at zhaselhorst@guerincatholic.org.