USA: MAINE - Nonprofit Using Shipping Container To Grow Food For Those In Need
September 16, 2024
ELLSWORTH — Hydroponically grown plants are lining the shelves at Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, thanks to a new partnership between the food pantry and a Castine-based nonprofit hydroponic farm called the Good Table Foundation.
Around 160 packages of produce, including lettuce varieties, kale, spinach, round carrots, radishes and arugula, were delivered in compostable packaging to the food pantry for the first time on Sept. 3, a supply that can be expected twice a week from here on out.
Hydroponic plants are grown without soil. At the Good Table Foundation, they are grown in a 40-foot shipping container on a rotational basis, so the produce can be harvested and delivered to Loaves and Fishes each week throughout the year.
Impressed with Loaves and Fishes' approach to addressing local food poverty, Good Table Foundation President Greg Nitzkowski said he sought out the food pantry for the foundation's first partnership.
“[Nitzkowski] came in and toured because he knew someone who volunteers here, and he was impressed with the way we do things,” said Loaves and Fishes Pantry Manager Dave Schnebeck. “We have people come in and shop for their own groceries. So many pantries, you come in and they hand you a box, but we try to make it a positive experience.”
Loaves and Fishes is the only pantry Good Table Foundation is working with so far, and Nitzkowski plans to keep it that way unless the farm begins to produce more than the food pantry needs.
“The last thing I want to do is oversell ourselves,” said Nitzkowski. “I’d rather overproduce than underproduce.”
Once a lawyer, Nitzkowski said he decided to pursue a grassroots approach to tackling food poverty after he became restless from 40 years of working at a law firm.
Originally from California, Nitzkowski chose to base the farm in Maine, where he has summered for the last 25 years, because he felt he could make a greater impact on food poverty.
With the location in mind, Good Table Foundation took shape over the last three years. The farm was delivered in July 2023 and test grows began in late March this year. The test grows, Nitzkowski said, presented a big learning curve for himself and his small team of volunteers, but they were able to deliver their product to Loaves and Fishes in a test run at the end of May.
Seedlings at the farm are grown in garden trays before they are transplanted to cultivation panels, which are hung vertically from the ceiling. An irrigation system runs behind the panels, delivering water and nutrients to the produce.
Ultraviolet and infrared LED light arrays positioned throughout the shipping container generate heat and stimulate faster growth so the produce can be harvested within 50 days.
Without the nuisance of pests or harsh weather, the produce can be grown pesticide free and provided to families in need throughout the year, not just during the traditional farmer’s growing season, creating a huge advantage to the food pantry’s offerings during the colder months.
Due to the size of the cultivation panels, Nitzkowski said the Good Table Foundation is limited in what can be grown. While leafy greens are easy enough, root vegetables are difficult to grow. The nonprofit, however, has managed to produce round carrots and radishes to offer a little more variety.
A motivator for Nitzkowski is the time he spent volunteering in high school. “To deliver food to people in need, which in my era, which is a long time ago, this is 1973, '74 and '75, was essentially shoving a box of surplus cheese and a few cans of lousy food into people's hands and just seeing how crushing that was in their eyes,” he said. “That has lasted with me.”
Loaves and Fishes’ approach offers dignity and choice to the people using its services, something that Nitzkowski believes is a better pathway to helping people in need without making them feel dehumanized.
“We hope, pray that we can reach our joint goal of offering very high quality, nutritious food products in an environment that is not that much different than the supermarket in the sense it fulfills an American sense of expectation about what the experience of securing food should be,” said Nitzkowski. “Why should it be so different for the poor?”