USA: Groton, Connecticut Schools Now Growing Lettuce in a Shipping Container 'Farm

Kimberly Drelich ,

The Day, New London, Conn.

March 8, 2025

Groton — Rows of lettuce growing in a hydroponic system in a shipping container outside the school district's administration building will help provide students and the community with fresh food year-round.

Students and food service employees plan to harvest 150 to 200 heads of lettuce each week from the water-based system, said Groton Public Schools Food Service Director Ernie Koschmieder.

School, government and Navy officials and students gathered Friday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and toured the new 40-foot-long shipping container that says WELCOME TO OUR FARM."

Koschmieder said the latest addition to the farm-to-school program, the hydroponic shipping container farm, will make a huge difference and provide food during all seasons.

The produce will go toward school meals; fresh garden bags given, free of charge, to children in summertime recreation programs; social services; Community Supported Agriculture boxes sold to staff; and for catered functions.

Inside the shipping container a variety of lettuce, from butterhead to romaine, as well as some kale, grow underneath lights in small pots with a spongy material, as well as clay pebbles to hold the plants down.

The plants' roots hang down in the system, sitting in fertilized water, explained Declan Wlochowski, operations lead for Levo International, which designed and built the system and assists in training students and staff in hydroponics. Trays are set up in the corner for seedling production.

Fitch High School students Marissa Gonzalez, 17, a junior, and Ava Kennedy, 18, a senior, are interns for the GO Groton program, which helps give children equal access to the outdoors. They are helping grow the lettuce in the shipping container.

"I think it's pretty cool, Gonzalez said of the new hydroponic shipping container system.

She said that Fitch also has a hydroponics system in its cafeteria that provides fresh produce.

Photos: News. GT.Hydroponic