Purdue News
Purdue News
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Gardner grows tons of food for those in needCARROLLTOWN, Ind. – Stan Parka (MS ’58, PhD ’60) may have retired as a plant scientist in 1991, but that just means his research plot is no longer at Eli Lilly, but instead is his backyard garden.
And the benefactor of his research is no longer Lilly, where he worked for 31 years, but Gleaners Food Bank. "I consider my garden a research plot. Last year we grew about seven different varieties of peppers and six different varieties of tomatoes. We plan on whittling it down to the two peppers and two or three varieties of tomatoes that produce consistently," he says. In 1999, Parka turned over 10,000 pounds of food to Gleaners. This year, Parka upped the ante, producing 12,000 pounds of tomatoes, summer squash, peppers, green beans, eggplants, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. It was his wife's idea to grow and give to the food bank in Indianapolis. "Every year I grow about 1,000 sweet potato plants," Parka says. "Back in the fall of 1998, I had a bunch of sweet potatoes I didn’t know what to do with. We had already given them to all our friends, and Gail suggested I give them to Gleaners Food Bank. That’s when it all started." Parka is now Gleaners’ largest individual donor. "People like Stan are the lifeblood of food banks," says Darren Boyd, donor relations coordinator for Gleaners. "Without the help of people like Stan, food banks could not exist." Parka tends his garden with the same Allis Chalmers tractor he owned when he started with Eli Lilly in 1961. He certainly took a shine to the small, orange powerplants. During winter months Parka refurbishes tractors, and so far he has rebuilt seven Allis Chalmers models– one from every year between 1948 and 1955, except for 1954. Stan is the farmer in the family; Gail is the trucker. Each week through the harvest season she drives a pickup full of Stan’s labors the 20 miles from their Shelby County home to the food bank headquarters in Indianapolis. Parka spends as many as 10 hours a day in the garden. "He didn’t really retire," Gail jokes, "it’s just that now he's a full-time farmer." Parka acknowledges that the work isn’t always easy – "I’m 65, but some days I feel like I’m 95" – but he also recognizes that his work has helped him, as well as the food bank. "I consider this good therapy, not only for my mind, but also for my body," he says. "I’ll keep doing this as long as the Lord allows me to. It gives me a good feeling inside knowing that everything I grow is going to a good cause." Contact Parka at almostparadise@worldnet.att.net By Tom Campbell PHOTO CAPTION: Editor's Note: This is the first in a new series called "Unretired" that introduces you to School of Agriculture alumni who are retired in name only. Send suggestions to: Connections Editor, 1143 Agricultural Administration Building, Room 204, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1143, or e-mail to tc@aes.purdue.edu. |
