Farm to Table Field Trip
Macalester Students Go Off Campus to Learn About Equity, Sustainability, and Innovation in Agriculture
Summer 2026 Newsletter Article
The Twin Cities Activation Fund at Macalester supports off-campus learning and educational projects that promote reflection, meaning making, and sharing of lessons learned. For ten students their entrepreneurship and innovation experience began not on a journey to Silicon Valley, but to Loretto, right here in Minnesota. Less than an hour’s drive from campus, students saw first hand how a creative solution to a meaningful problem is making an impact.
From Farm To Table
Agriculture is a field that is ripe with innovation. Marcus Carpenter with Route 1 is creating economic opportunities and supporting local emerging farmers with access to career development, food security and equity in the agriculture system. By taking students out of the classroom, they experienced the fruits of Carpenter’s labor. For many of them it was the first time they took a field trip off campus to a local community.
In addition to offering emerging farmers the opportunity to grow and scale their own operations on two local farms, Route 1 is experimenting on the cutting edge of agriculture. The experience of stepping into the 8’ x 40’ hydroponic freight farm, an upcycled shipping container, was worth the journey. A digital platform runs the vertical walls with drip lines, controls temperatures, operates timed lighting, and even streams music for the plants while casting a kaleidoscope atmosphere. Route 1 regularly grows salad greens to supply Bellecour, a neighborhood bistro inspired by French cuisine, among other local restaurants.
Time To Taste
Students fully enjoyed the Farm to Table experience, tasting the colorful lettuces over a delicious lunch at Bellecour. From seeds to nourishing heads of lettuce, they witnessed the process of bringing fresh, crisp greens through a sustainable, agricultural supply chain, and how the kitchen incorporates the produce into its menu for the community to savor. They also were introduced to broader realities of restaurant operations from effectively supporting staff needs to navigating the fluctuating costs of ingredients and supplies.
“Food security is one of the topics I am interested in the most as an African,” said Ismail AboElMagd, ’29. The impact of a trip like this is to inform student scholarship, shape future career options, and develop compassion for community projects and innovative initiatives. Furthermore, an active experience outside of the classroom also fulfills Macalester’s focus to foster a service and action oriented mindset.
Ideas To Action
After lunch, Carpenter’s network in the local food system took the students to Frogtown Farm, an urban agriculture and community engagement farm in St. Paul, MN. Before getting their hands dirty helping tend to the soil pre-planting, students got a deeper understanding of the state’s agriculture policy and career opportunities from Minnesota’s Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture, Patrice Bailey. Lachelle Cunninghan, Executive Director of Frogtown Farm responded to the student field trip, “We can’t express enough how much this kind of partnership and engagement truly helps us in our mission. Seeing the students connect with urban agriculture and community food systems is incredibly inspiring and vital to the work we do.”
The students shared the same sentiment. “We had a ton of fun and learned a lot about agriculture and entrepreneurship outside the immediate Twin Cities area,” said Katherine Manuel ‘26 and Ailsa Chang ‘26. From preparing and serving a side salad to the realities of emerging farming through technologies, heading off campus was rich ground to gain a better understanding of the people and community impacted by these systems. It was also an opportunity to cultivate connections, and learn about the environments and actions shaping each person’s work, and in this case, it included getting your hands dirty!
Thank you to everyone who made this Farm to Table student experience possible. If you have a community innovation or impact field trip idea, let us know. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Team is actively seeking student community opportunities.