$450,000 In Gifts Targets New Food Science Building

June 15, 2000
University Park, Pa. -- Six gifts totaling $450,000 have bolstered Penn State's plans to build a new food sciences building at the University Park campus. The new facility, to be built with a combination of state and private funds, will help the Department of Food Science better serve Pennsylvania's food processing and manufacturing industry, which includes more than 2,300 companies employing 90,000 workers.

Making commitments for the new building were:

-- Del Grosso Foods, of Tipton, Blair County. Founded by Ferdinand J. and Mafalda M. Del Grosso in 1946 when they began to sell their family's pasta sauce, Del Grosso Foods now sells 3 million cases of tomato-based sauces and plans to expand into frozen foods. The Del Grosso Family also owns and operates Bland's Park in Tipton.

-- Roger and Barbara Claypoole, of Worthington, Armstrong County. Roger Claypoole is the general partner of Creekside Mushrooms Limited, grower and marketer of Moonlight Mushrooms. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in agriculture from Penn State in 1970 and 1971, respectively. The gift was made in memory of his father, Henry W. Claypoole, and uncle, Harold M. Claypoole, both Penn State alumni.

-- Wenger's Feed Mill Inc., of Rheems, Lancaster County, a producer of poultry and swine feeds. Founded in 1944 by Melvin M. Wenger, the organization operates a network of feed mills located in areas of animal production throughout Pennsylvania and neighboring states.

-- Horace Woodward, of Mendenhall, Chester County. Woodward recently retired from farming, having raised poultry, dairy cattle and fruit on a farm that has been in the Woodward family since 1906. He is a 1928 Penn State graduate in agriculture.

-- Carol Thoele-Williams and Richard C. Williams in memory of their father, Howard W. Thoele, former Professor of Dairy Science and Senior Associate Dean Emeritus of the College of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Thoele was highly regarded by colleagues and students for his professionalism and role of friend and mentor to many.

-- Barry and Rosemary Zoumas, of State College, Centre County. Barry Zoumas is the Alan R. Warehime Professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Formerly vice president for science and technology at Hershey Foods, he holds master's and doctoral degrees in nutrition from Penn State.

The University plans to recognize the generosity of these gifts by naming components of the new food sciences building in honor of the donors, or in memory of those individuals in whose names the gifts were made.

The building will contain pilot-scale processing facilities, laboratories, classrooms, offices and a new University Creamery manufacturing and sales area. It will be located about a block east of the current facility, Borland Lab, on the current site of a parking lot.

"These gifts play a leadership role in our efforts to secure sufficient resources to build a first-rate home for our food sciences program," said Robert D. Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Steele said that external review teams have repeatedly noted the limitations on these programs imposed by Borland Lab, opened in 1932.

"These limitations hamper our food science department's attempts to achieve more effective collaboration with industry partners, to use state-of-the-art processing equipment, and to compete for the best students and faculty. The new building will help us to better serve the food processing and manufacturing industry in virtually everything we do-research, undergraduate and graduate education, technology transfer and short courses for industry employees-the list is a long one."

No date has been set for the completion of the building, which is a priority capital project of Penn State's Grand Destiny Campaign, a University-wide effort to raise $1 billion in private support during the seven-year period ending June 30, 2003.

Contacts:
Mike Bezilla 863-4512 work, 238-5842 home
Anne Danahy 863-4512 work