On March 19, 2020, the California coronavirus shelter-in-place order left many Cal Poly students feeling uncertain about what their futures held. Thousands of students rushed back to their hometowns, while a select few decided to stay on campus to work during the shelter-in-place order. Several of these students worked at Cal Poly’s campus production agriculture operations.
Cal Poly’s iconic Learn by Doing motto took on a whole new meaning for agricultural students who worked on campus while learning how to remain efficient and productive during a global pandemic. In particular, the Cal Poly Creamery, J and G Lou Family Meat Processing Center and the Environmental Horticulture Science Unit have had unique experiences adapting to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Cal Poly Creamery faced many obstacles when COVID-19 first broke out in March 2020. Scheduling and finding employees to work became difficult because many students went back home when the pandemic broke out. Those who did stay and work had to adjust to new safety protocols in the creamery. These protocols included wearing face masks and staying six feet apart. Though there has been difficulty during the pandemic, the creamery experienced some excitement.
The Cal Poly Creamery got a new ice cream machine earlier in the year, increasing production from 100 cartons to 1,000 cartons in two hours. Weekly, the creamery is now making 2,500 cartons of ice cream. They also have created new flavors and a new ice cream formula that increased the fat content from 12 percent to 16 percent. With this new machine and new formula, the Cal Poly Creamery has expanded sales in local grocery stores and has started a weekly ice cream drive-thru on Friday afternoons outside of the creamery. At the drive-thru, a tent is set up, and cars drive to the tent and order whatever pint of Cal Poly ice cream they would like (and any cheese available). The drive-thru creamery has become a weekly tradition for many parents and grandparents that bring their kids by to get ice cream after a full day of online school.
Recent graduate and assistant manager at the creamery Cassidy Cooper said that the pandemic has, “forced the creamery to think on their feet more” and “we had to think outside the box to increase sales.”
Thinking outside the box led to the success of the drive-thru and to a dramatic increase in sales. Not only have sales quadrupled, but students are more excited than ever to be working. Cooper said that the fun of making and selling ice cream has made “students care more, instead of this just being another job,” and that “people enjoy working here and want to make this place the best it can be.”
Photo by: Joe Johnston, Cal Poly University Photographer
Similar to the creamery, Cal Poly Meats faced difficulty with scheduling and space. Challenges included the reduction of in-person labs, where students help with production, employees who went home at the beginning of the pandemic, and ensuring COVID-19 safety measures were in place. The meat center has also faced difficulty keeping up with the number of employees needed to help with the significant spike in sales.
This significant spike in sales was due to the meat shortage in local grocery stores that happened during the early days of the pandemic. Cal Poly Meats increased sales to Cal Poly Village Market and local grocery stores from about six cases a week to 20-24 cases weekly. To adjust to both COVID-19 regulations and an increase in sales, Cal Poly Meats decided to close its retail store and instead start a drive-thru service. The drive-thru is open Thursday through Saturday afternoons. Customers can either call in their order prior and pick it up or look at a menu and order whatever they like. Cal Poly Meats also continues to sell plants from the Cal Poly Plant Shop, Cal Poly dairy products, produce boxes and other student-made products through the drive thru.
"We have expanded in a lot of ways,'' said Cal Poly Meats Assistant Manager Morgan Metheny. "Our sales have quadrupled because more people are cooking at home during the pandemic. The drive-thru option enables people to be socially distant while shopping. People are even picking up products for their neighbors!"
Metheny commented that students working for Cal Poly Meats have really appreciated and enjoyed ensuring people in the community have what they need and are proud that their efforts are supporting the community.
When COVID-19 first impacted Cal Poly, the Environmental Horticulture Unit had to adjust to the pandemic by decreasing the number of its employees by 25%. Even though there were adjustments due to coronavirus restrictions, the Horticulture Unit saw some excitement because of an increase in sales at the Poly Plant Shop by about 50% and the blooming of the corpse flower, “Musty.”
Musty the corpse flower is native to Sumatra and Cal Poly’s was germinated in 2015. Musty was given to Cal Poly along with three others from Cuesta College in 2017 and bloomed on July 9, 2020. The allure of the plant is its rarity and unpredictability. The flower only blooms between five and 50 years and only lasts a few days at the most. Though its scientific name is Amorphophallus titanum, it is known as the corpse flower due to a stench similar to that of rotting flesh. Cal Poly’s College of Science and Mathematics and College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences came together to get the corpse flower to bloom. This project brought in thousands of spectators to see the flower bloom for a little less than two days.
Photo: Joe Johnston, Cal Poly University Photographer
Biological Sciences Department instructional support technician Gage Willey said, “it was spectacular to see how many people were excited to come and do something like that” especially having to wait in a long line with masks on in the heat of the summer. Willey thought that “it speaks a lot to the testament of how unifying plants are; it is something everyone agrees on.”
Wendy Robinson, Environmental Horticulture Science Unit manager, added that the event was “the real definition of what cooperation looks like in 3D” and that “so many separate entities came together,” for the event.
With the success of the corpse flower and an increase in sales, Willey and Robinson agreed that they are thankful the community supports the unit. This excitement has also made them hopeful that students and teachers will be more excited than ever to come back to Learn by Doing once the pandemic is over. Though the pandemic has dramatically impacted every person's way of life, Cal Poly continues to stand by its Learn by Doing motto throughout the outbreak. Cal Poly agriculture students working on agricultural operations took what they knew about the threat of the virus, adjusted to ensure safety for all, and gave back to their community to ensure they produced quality products while still learning about production. Cal Poly agricultural students, employees and teachers have taken Learn by Doing to the next level.
Photo: Joe Johnston, Cal Poly University Photographer