PEA PATCH COMMUNITY CAMPUS UPDATE

Resource Center to Stay in Current Eastsound Location

The Pea Patch Community Campus is being created as a place on the island to meet basic human needs for food and shelter – and the wellbeing that grows from that stability. The 11-acre property is owned by OPAL Community Land Trust. As with all the nearly 100 acres that OPAL owns, it will stay in community ownership for the good of the community in perpetuity.

One collaborating partner, Orcas Community Resource Center (OCRC), has had an unexpected opportunity to purchase the building they currently occupy on North Beach Road in Eastsound Village. This represents a significant cost savings – enabling the Resource Center to achieve the stability of having a permanent home at much lower cost and in a much shorter time frame than building on the Pea Patch Community Campus. As a result, the OCRC has decided to stay in their current location. 

OCRC remains committed to the success of the Pea Patch Community Campus and will continue to work with the Food Bank and OPAL to meet islanders’ needs, just blocks from the Campus. OCRC and OPAL will work together to provide on-site supportive services for people living in OPAL housing on the campus.

“The Pea Patch is about community,” said Representative Debra Lekanoff, who championed the project’s $5M funding appropriation during the 2025 Legislative Session. “You, the community, are building a powerful solution to meet the needs of your own community for years to come. That’s what matters most.”

OPAL and the Food Bank are moving forward on schedule to start site work and construction as soon as land use permits are issued, hopefully in early 2026, with a ground-turning event in November 2025. Fundraising for site work will continue this summer to unlock the ability to construct 20 townhomes for rental housing, and a permanent home for the Food Bank.

Without a Resource Center building on campus, the campaign goal to build the Pea Patch Community Campus will be lower by about $8M. Pea Patch leadership will consider additional collaborative partners in the future to make use of available space on campus and to expand community benefits.

The campaign to build the Pea Patch Community Campus has raised just over $26M to date toward its revised (estimated) goal of $40M with support from federal and state public funds, private foundations and individual donations.

The Pea Patch Community Campus is under development at 55 Pea Patch Lane, on the historic Lavender Farm, north of Eastsound Village. The unified social services campus will provide permanent facilities and increased capacity for the Food Bank and twenty new long-term townhome rentals with supportive services to serve households of low income. The Pea Patch Community Campus is a collaboration of OPAL Community Land Trust and Orcas Island Food Bank. Learn more.