Farm to School Success: Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards

Three members of the Kercher family at the farm: Tom Kercher, Mollie Kieffer, & Bill Kercher

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Open since 1922, Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards operates about 600 acres of fruits and vegetables – apples, cabbage, sweet corn, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash, pumpkins, and peaches. 

Bill Kercher and his sister are fifth generation farmers, and operate the farm with their parents. The farm includes a market and agri-tourism activities, and the family also runs a wholesale business, Sunrise Produce, which sources from other Indiana farmers (and beyond, when needed). 

Both directly and through distributors (Piazza and Troyer), Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards sells to K-12 schools in Goshen, as well as colleges and universities in the area. While Bill hopes to continue growing their K-12 business (and is always looking for new customers!), what he is most proud of about the farm’s involvement in farm to school is how many kids they have been able to engage in agriculture. 

Bill believes that all kids should have daily access to fresh produce, and to know how and where their food is grown. That’s why the farm hosts over 5,000 children each fall for field trips, and why Bill is involved in Agriculture in the Classroom (a national agriculture education program). 

Helping kids connect to how their food is grown will hopefully inspire at least a few of them to choose agriculture as a career. Given the dwindling number of fruit and vegetable farmers in Indiana, Bill thinks that is just what we need to make sure we see more and more Indiana produce in our schools’ cafeterias.