Preservation Station

Amount Awarded: $9,941.00

Academic Year: 2024-2025

Implementation: Active, Spring 2025 - Spring 2028

The Outback Farm is a 5-acre organic farm on WWU's main campus where organic, nutrient-rich food is grown year round to stock food pantries across campus. During the Outback Farm's bountiful summer harvest season, however, there are very few students on campus who can benefit from this abundance. In order to increase access to these foods throughout the fall and winter seasons, the Preservation Station partners with the Native American Student Union (NASU) to organize student volunteers and Outback Farm employees to harvest, preserve, and distribute the produce to WWU students free of charge, as well as educate about the value of local, fresh food, and how to increase food sovereignty through preservation methods.

The Preservation Station projects allows for the purchase and maintenance of a freeze drier, two dehydrators, and other food processing equipment, as well as packaging materials, that will take the harvested food from harvest to preserved produce that can be distributed widely. NASU will support these efforts, as well as utilize the equipment to process and prepare traditional foods for distribution through their own events and community gatherings. This collaboration with NASU is in part to honor the deeply rooted food cultures and land stewardship that are present in Indigenous communities locally and around the world, as the project seeks to nurture right relationships with land and people for all WWU community members.