Penn State is working with local farmers more this year by buying more food from them and participating for the first time in a Farm-to-College program.

The program is part of a nationwide initiative to support business between universities and local farms, Penn State's Farm-to-College coordinator Emily Cook said. Cook's job is to talk to farmers and act as their liaison to the university. "I think that it was a big step for Penn State to hire someone, full time, to be dedicated to the Farm-to-College cause," Cook said. "That carried a lot of weight when I was talking to the farmers."

Cook spent six years working in vegetable production in Houstontown and managed a small vegetable farm in New Jersey. "I understand from the farmers' side, all of the conflicts and pressures of the marketing they have to do just to make a profit," Cook said. "At the farm in New Jersey, we had to go all the way to Washington, D.C., to sell as much as we needed to sell at their farmers' market."

Cook said that today, it is becoming harder for local farmers to turn a decent profit for small farm production and that the university is trying to help local farm families by supporting their businesses through the Farm-to-College program.

"The idea behind this is to have the university buy more food from local farmers," said Linda Moist, owner of Clan Stewart Farm in Huntingdon.

Her friend, Peggy Keating-Butler, said she and Moist were supportive of the program and its promotion of local farms. "We recognize that it provides financial support for people trying to hold on to their farms," Keating-Butler said.

Sally and Oliver Goodman, 40-year State College residents, said the program would help make county farmers more profitable. "If they're gonna buy the produce, that's what the farmers need," Oliver Goodman said.

Businesses and bakeries who participate in Farm-to-College events, such as public dinners, often have their names listed at those events, Sally Goodman said, which gives them free advertising.

In the past, farmers have been daunted by the university's food-purchasing process, Cook said. "Penn State's size poses a big issue with buying," Cook said. "A big university has big food needs, and the problem then becomes, 'How are we going to find a farmer that can produce the quantity we need and can afford to sell it to us at wholesale prices?' "

This poses challenges to both the university and farmers, Cook said. "Having 10 pounds of something coming from here and 40 pounds from there could be a nightmare for university purchasers," Cook said. "And as for farmers -- Penn State plans their menus three months in advance. It's hard for farmers to think that far ahead and be able to have the amounts of produce that the university needs at the competitive prices it wants."

The university has worked with Harner Farm, 2191 W. Whitehall Road, for the past 25 years, and currently gets 30 percent of its milk from Hartle's Farm in Bellefonte, Cook said.