Centre County’s Way Fruit Farm to sell fresh produce and more at second location opening soon

A sixth generation family business that has been serving the area from its location in Stormstown will soon have a larger reach with a second location.

Way Fruit Farm is opening a second store in downtown State College at 252 E. Calder Way, in late July. Jason Coopey, an owner of the farm, said he and his wife, Megan, have been thinking about trying to do something else and have slowly been expanding the farm’s capacity to do so. They recently added a new cider press, more cooling space and other things so they’d be ready if the opportunity ever arose, he said.

“We’ve been very lucky and very, very blessed to make it through the pandemic. We did deliveries and we started getting a lot of student deliveries, especially in the fall and the wintertime when they’re here. The parents just send kids care packages, so I said, ‘Hmm, there obviously is a demand in town.’”

Plus, their location in Stormstown can be a long trip for some and with rising gas prices, Coopey said it might be easier for some customers to meet them downtown rather than coming out to the farm. He also hopes they’ll be able to gain more customers in that area, including more Penn State students.

The opportunity to do something new came about amid the pandemic when they noticed more and more empty storefronts in downtown State College. A high school friend told Coopey that he had a couple of open spaces if they were interested.

“We looked at this one spot, it just seemed to be very perfect,” he said. “...It didn’t require a ton of work for us to get into, and, you know, we put our touches on it, but it didn’t require any major remodeling. And so it just seemed to work out perfect for us, and so we figured, let’s just try to bring this into downtown.”

The two-story space is at the corner of McAllister Ally and College Avenue. He hopes it will expand their customer base and serve their existing customers in the area better. The upstairs will have a farmers market atmosphere, featuring the fresh produce that Way Fruit Farm is known for, such as apples, peaches, strawberries and sweet corn. There will also be a bakery — where they’ll have their apple cider donuts — and a little kitchen that will serve lunches and dinners.

Downstairs, there will be a lot of seating available and other “goodies,” like a soda wall. He envisions the downtown location to be a “miniature version” of the Stormstown location, where they’ll bring their best sellers.

Jason and Megan both grew up in Centre County but left for about 10 years. They returned because of their love for the area. He worries downtown is losing some of its charm, with many local businesses leaving and being replaced.

“Downtown is such a cool, little vibrant spot, but I do think that it needs people to keep rejuvenating it and keep bringing back those local businesses that were, you know, some of which were lost before the pandemic and then definitely after the pandemic,” he said.

“We’re excited to be helping the Centre Region grow and help keep it unique. That’s what I think that this town has always been built on. It’s what makes State College, State College.”