Slow Food Farms was established in April 2024. The plot was created to provide students within LEAD101 and across campus a hands-on experience learning, practicing, and living the Slow Food mentality. Throughout the Fall 2024 semester and beyond, Slow Food Farms will be an integral part of broader mission of the Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm - of yielding great food and community through cultivating diverse, agro-ecological growing and learning opportunities. The Kate Farm and Slow Food Farms nurture place-based stewardship and skill building in sustainable agriculture. 

SMCM Land Acknowledgment and Pledge:

We acknowledge that the land on which we are learning, working and gathering today is the ancestral home of the Yacocomico and Piscataway Peoples. We also acknowledge that St. Mary's City was partly built and sustained by enslaved people of African descent. Through this acknowledgment, we recognize these communities and all those who have been displaced and enslaved through colonization. 

Given the unique importance of the land on which we sit and given the unique educational mission of St. Mary’s College of Maryland as The National Public Honors College, we pledge to continue to unearth and understand these historic realities so that they inform all of our work. We also pledge to work tirelessly in making our institution more accessible, inclusive and equitable, especially for those populations most affected by societal inequities. We do this with the understanding that by supporting and learning from all of our diverse communities, we build a more sustainable future for all.