Bucknell Alumni Gift Renames Campus Farm, Funds Teaching Kitchen Expansion

A gift from Bill and Madeline Morrow has renamed Bucknell University's five-acre campus farm the Morrow Farm at Bucknell University, the university announced March 18, with local outlets picking up the story days later. Bucknell described the donation as "transformative," though the university has not disclosed a dollar amount.

Bill Morrow graduated from Bucknell in 1970, and the university's announcement credits him and Madeline Morrow with advancing what Bucknell communications called "a bold vision for innovation and hands-on interdisciplinary learning, fostering sustainability, community engagement and student well-being."

The farm itself sits on the southwest corner of campus, where, as Bucknell noted in its release, "what was once a simple, weedy field has grown into a vibrant 5-acre center of regenerative agriculture and academic innovation." In 2025, students and staff harvested more than 8,000 pounds of produce across the campus farm and the Lewisburg Community Garden, the program's downtown Lewisburg location.

The Morrows' gift will finance a new building designed to function as a learning laboratory, capable of hosting larger student groups and running year-round classes through the off-season months when outdoor growing stops. Integrated solar infrastructure will power the facility, which Bucknell described as providing "a safe and versatile environment for interdisciplinary learning, cooking, preserving and preparing farm-fresh produce." The gift also establishes an endowment to fund staffing, operations, and faculty- and student-led research, giving the farm a long-term financial foundation it previously lacked.

Bucknell's LinkedIn post framed the gift in direct terms: "The Morrows' generous gift does more than change a name. It advances our vision, funding new facilities and an endowment to support faculty and student-led research, ensuring that our center for regenerative agriculture remains a vibrant part of the student experience year-round."

No construction timeline or groundbreaking date has been announced. The university has also not specified how the endowment will be structured or which staff positions it will support.