TowerFall2022

6 TOWER | FALL 2022 CREATING BUZZ Now he directs a 27-person team that includes people who oversee the farming, direct fundraising efforts and coordinate volunteers. There’s also an executive chef who demonstrates cooking healthy meals. Paillex emphasizes that staff growth has not changed the integral role that volunteers play. An average 9,000 volunteers a year provide needed manpower for harvesting the crops and other activities. Volunteers come from corporate and community groups. People who benefit from the Free Farm Markets also volunteer to harvest, spending a day in the outdoors. Marie Knapp of Milford, N.J., is a seven-year volunteer. Her assignments have included visiting grocery store partners to pick up near-expiration produce for distribution at food banks as well as staffing after-school programs and Free Farm Markets in Newark, East Orange and Jersey City, N.J. She’s enthusiastic about the friends she’s made in those communities who have helped her understand what it means to be without access to fresh foods. “They’re lovely people with lovely families who don’t have access to a grocery store,” she says. Corporate teams from companies like Johnson & Johnson have worked in Grow-a-Row’s fields from the beginning, also providing corporate sponsorships. KU alumnus John Knoble ’88, director of strategic skills for Johnson & Johnson’s MedTech, met Paillex when his team volunteered. The men learned about their shared connection as Kutztown business majors. Paillex also discovered that Knoble’s hobby is beekeeping – an interest that would allow him to provide unique volunteer help. The farm needed to reintroduce bees to pollinate its orchards. Knoble enlisted his neighbors, two veteran beekeepers who have 20 hives. With their help, between 800,000 and one million bees were reintroduced to Grow-a-Row’s orchards in 2021. “We actually gained an incremental 75,000 pounds of apples last year alone, just because of bringing in the bees again to the orchard,” Paillex says. Knoble says watching Paillex in action inspires involvement from volunteers. “He’s such a nice guy, and so good-hearted, yet it’s balanced so well with a drive to accomplish things and with his business know-how,” Knoble says. “He’s got that big corporate background that has allowed him to accomplish things on the scale that he has.” DIGGING DEEP DURING THE PANDEMIC Paillex’s business acumen was tested during the COVID-19 pandemic. America’s Grow-a-Row was on track to achieve its goals for growth in 2020 when the pandemic interrupted its volunteer programs, which provide integral help to plant crops and later harvest them. Director of Farm Management Operations Jeremy Compton played a key role in helping the organization pivot from a completely volunteer-based farming program to one combining commercial farming methods for planting with volunteer help for harvesting. A special fundraising appeal closed a funding gap. Chip is a boots-on-the-ground leader. He inspires our staff with his enthusiasm, leads by example, and has drawn together a very collaborative and productive team … With the help of our volunteers and donors, together we make a positive impact on the communities we serve. – HEATHER MULVEY, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS The reintroduction of bees has led to an increase in the amount of apples that are produced. A bird's eye view of part of Grow-a-Row’s location in Pittstown, N.J.

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