3 PillarZ Farm

3 PillarZ Farm (3PF) is a non-profit serving the Corry area and surrounding communities. Our mission is to provide agricultural education, enhance local food security and economic development, and offer programs for mental health and overall well-being in a farm setting. 

With family farms disappearing, the average age of a farmer is 58 years old; only 9% are under the age of 35 (USDA, 2022 statistics). 3 PillarZ reimagines farming in the Northwest Pennsylvania region by transitioning a former dairy farm into a place where anyone who would like to try farming can do so with minimal financial risk. We offer access to land, farm equipment, tools, and barns to allow new farmers to hone their skills and deepen their knowledge in growing crops or raising farm animals. We partner with Penn State University Extension professionals and the Rodale Institute for Organic Regenerative Agriculture to provide advanced education and consultation.

3PF is serving our farming community, including veteran farmers, by telling their stories and broadening the market base for fair trade, so farmers can do what they do best and receive a fair price for their locally grown food, fiber, and skincare products. Your donations will support our work in curating the best Northwest Pennsylvania farmers and makers have to offer, promoting participating farmers/makers, managing 3PF's online, direct-to-consumer market, and fulfilling customer orders.

Through our networking efforts, we have built relationships with local organizations and farmers to establish the foundation for a food hub to ensure no locally grown food goes to waste. We are also exploring the need for a shared kitchen that will overcome financial and regulatory barriers for food entrepreneurs in the region to develop and sell a variety of food-based products.

We share our grant-writing skills with our partners to apply for local, state, and national grants. We successfully supported a local farmer to secure a Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Innovation grant in Spring 2025.

To reconnect young people with farming and agriculture, we partner with local education organizations for day camps (STEM education), field trips, and on-farm, longer-term projects. After three years of hosting an annual Farm Fest event, we've transitioned to focused educational workshops for our varying audiences. We welcomed the 21st Century Girls STEM Camp to the farm for a third year in June, where the students conducted water quality studies, learned about manure as a natural fertilizer, and participated in a draft horse driving clinic. We will host a regenerative agriculture field day this fall with an internationally known expert, Russ Wilson, thanks to the generous donations of Erie Gives 2024. To serve our cultural community, we will also host an art retreat in late summer with regionally renowned artists, capturing the beauty of the farm on canvas in a variety of media.

Helping us grow will allow us to accelerate all these promising efforts in collaboration with community partners. We welcome the opportunity to be creative and innovative to meet the needs of the region!