The Society of the Sacred Heart founded Sprout Creek Farm, a non-profit organization, in 1982 on Sacred Heart Greenwich’s King Street campus. The farm was originally located in and around the classic red farmhouse on lower campus. Today, the 200-acre farm is located in Duchess County, New York along the banks of Sprout Creek.
Sister Margo Morris, RSCJ, Sister Sue Rogers, RSCJ, and Sister Georgie Blesser, RSCJ began the campus farm and dedicated the facilities to student education. Today, each Sacred Heart sophomore class visits Sprout Creek Farm for its annual retreat. The farm aims to educate the public about their connection to and responsibility for the Earth, according to sproutcreekfarm.org.
“What is really unique [about Sprout Creek Farm] is that it is imbued with the charisma of the Society of the Sacred Heart and the network of Sacred Heart schools,” Sister Morris said. “Those combined missions really formulated the mission of Sprout Creek Farm [. . .] There is really nothing else like it in the United States, because its main mission is education.”
This April, Sacred Heart invited Sister Morris to speak as a part of the First Friday Speaker Series. The series includes presentations and a mass each month throughout the academic year. The presentation series offers members of the Sacred Heart community the opportunity hear about the Sacred Heart Network’s Goals and Criteria in action.
In her presentation, Friday, April 6, Sister Morris connected Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato si’, with Sprout Creek Farm’s mission and with the work that the farm does for its community. Laudato si’, or On Care for our Common Home, addresses how people are responsible for shaping the Earth’s future, according to usccb.org.
Two months earlier, January 11, the Society of the Sacred Heart transferred ownership of Sprout Creek Farm to Marist College, hoping to secure the future of the farm and preserve its mission as a nonprofit organization. Marist College is located in Poughkeepsie, New York, 10.6 miles away from Sprout Creek Farm.
“The people at Marist . . . [are] so respectful, [and] they only want to help,” Sister Morris said. “[Marist is] really helping us recover from things that had happened and get back on track.”
Throughout the next few months, Sprout Creek Farm will work to reorganize its staff and programs with the help of Marist College. With the inspiration of the Society of the Sacred Heart’s mission, Sprout Creek Farm hopes to continue its mission of education in the future.
– Sydney Kim, Staff Writer
Featured Image courtesy of rscj.org