At first all thirty-five of the Malcolm men lived in the stone house.  As soon as the barracks were finished, sixteen of the men moved to the top floor of the barracks.  A second building, designed like the first, finished in late 1944 housed the shop and food storage room in the basement and the dining hall and kitchen on the ground floor.  The CPS office and staff apartments completed the rest of the top floor.

The first issue of Mennonite Farmunity published by the men at Malcolm, explained that the Peace Problems Committee wanted to test the model of a smaller unit to learn whether it had value for possible peace-time conscription.  Further, that particular group of Mennonites wanted to gain experience with fostering an educational and religious life program “in keeping with the beliefs of this particular branch of the Mennonites”. (in Gingerich p. 184) The publication continued from January 1945 through June 1946.

Guy F. Hershberger, a regular visitor from Goshen College, taught a class on the Mennonite Community, one which planners hoped would also attract wives who had followed their husbands to the Lincoln area.  From those studies, several men in the unit helped launch The Mennonite Community Magazine.

Men took other classes on soils and crops, animal husbandry, farm accounting, and welding, among other subjects.