Now fresh produce can be grown and served during winter months
Imagine serving 450 meals per day without a food budget or consistent donations. It’s “a lot of hands on deck,” says Brent Crane, executive director of the Food & Care Coalition, a local resource center for unsheltered neighbors.
While fruit and vegetable donations are abundant during Utah’s end-of-summer harvest season, recipients are unfortunately going without a lot of essential high-nutrition ingredients during the rest of the year, Crane says.
Thanks to a group of BYU students and their professor — Matt Arrington, an expert in indoor farming solutions — this year marks a new era for the coalition’s fresh produce supply. Arrington and students recently designed and built a hydroponics greenhouse with funding from the Food & Care Coalition to provide nutritious produce during the cold months.
Tomatoes, herbs, and leafy greens are grown in a water solution rather than soil, with carefully controlled pH, temperature, humidity, and lights. At only 20 x 40 feet, this indoor farm can produce an astounding 400 pounds of produce every three months. In addition to higher yield, the indoor system conserves water, saves space and time, and reduces disease and pests. Furthermore, the crop is buffered against climate disasters and gradual climate change.
“There is a pattern over the last decade of introducing systems like this to marginalized communities,” said Arrington, who believes hydroponic farming is one solution to the increasing problem of food access. “As we talk about food security on a larger scale, systems like this don’t replace field agriculture; instead, they supplement it. Food security is enhanced as we diversify it. We want local sources. We want international sources. We want hydroponic indoor setups that are sheltered from the outside environment. We want field setups that are inexpensive. Having all these different pieces together is what enhances food security.”
The hydroponics greenhouse is composed of three independent systems. The ebb and flow system nurtures all the seeds until they sprout. The leafy greens are separated into a Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) system where a pump circulates the nutrient solution through a channel that lightly bathes the roots. Tomatoes are separated into a trellis design that drips nutrients and water directly onto the roots. Together the systems create healthy, fast-growing plants.
The systems require knowledge and skills to maintain so the students have been involving volunteers throughout the process. Together they maintain the system, planting, nurturing and harvesting. BYU student Jack Windsor said the hydroponics greenhouse will ultimately be run by the Food & Care Coalition.
“Designing this system and building it here has been amazing, but we don’t have the ability to get students here all the time to maintain the farm,” Windsor said. “And we also don’t want to take away the opportunity to serve and to learn from the volunteers and residents here. So, we are developing instruction manuals and in-person training.”
The coalition’s kitchen manager and chef, Kenneth Larsen, is delighted to have more options to provide nutritious meals without asking for increased donations or turning to canned produce. He now steps just outside the kitchen and harvests fresh greens and tomatoes year-round.
“It was really neat to see the amount of fresh vegetables, and also the color . . . and just how fast they grow,” Larsen said. “That was a big shocker for me [to see that] this stuff can grow super-fast and produce quite a bit, which makes it a nice blessing for me.”
Arrington notes that an indoor farm such as this is a pattern for other communities in need. He sees multiple benefits.
“It is supplemental nutrition for residents and it’s a skill transfer,” he said. “We’re creating an opportunity to teach residents a skill that has been proven crucial in mental health and recidivism rates in prisons. It’s something that brings peace to people. Gardening—the harvesting, the connection with plants--also gives you a certain amount of control over your food system and food security.”
Windsor said he is grateful for his BYU education and the opportunity to both serve and learn as a member of the community.
“In addition to giving BYU students the opportunity to build something like this, the experience and learning that I gained in this process will affect me for the rest of my life,” Windsor said. “Not just the technical skills, but the interactions with people who live here at the Food and Care Coalition who are in the process of rebuilding their lives. It makes me understand what Christ really wants us to be doing at this time in the world. It shows us how to apply the most specific skill in a way that benefits God’s children.”
