Suffolk Church Growing Aeroponic Food

Suffolk church introduces indoor aeroponics for food insecurity

A Suffolk church has opened an indoor aeroponic “Garden of Eat’n,” to grow fresh produce.

Suffolk Church Growing Aeroponic Food | Suffolk News Herald |

A Suffolk church brings in an area for soil-free growth of food to the community. Greater Works Community Outreach Ministries has entered into its sixth year of existence with a grand opening ceremony, this past Saturday, for the all-new aeroponic facility, which is essentially a vertical growth that demands 20 gallons of water and nutrients sitting at the base of all 12 towers, flowing up the stem of the tower to distribute onto the roots of the plants from a water cap in each of the 28 pods for every plant in the area, all while the plants themselves remain dry.

because I never want anybody feel like we’re giving them scraps and take what you can get.”

What initially started out, on March 1, 2021 in Newport News, as a mobile pantry has grown into a sprawling facility with different components from the, 4-year-old, House of Bread food pantry to the aeroponics facility, known as the “Garden of Eat’n”, which allows the church to harvest every three weeks and replant immediately to keep up with demand, and bringing lettuce, collards, basil, cucumbers, and more.

The church’s “First Lady”, Valerie Baker, says that the system uses 90% less space and 95% less water than more traditional methods, while going into detail how the Garden feeds into the House of Bread to feed 250 families three Wednesdays per month, and the drive-up mobile pantry every third Saturday. The church will be closed this Wednesday, March 4.

“We planted those seeds four days ago. It’s a 12 tower aeroponic garden. And each garden hosts 28 pies. So, each one there will be 28 heads of greens, and you can harvest those every three weeks. Yeah, so we have 12. So what we plan to do is take the vegetable straight to the House of Bread. So when we serve on Wednesdays, we will have harvested those vegetables that day, and they will get them that day. So you can’t get any fresher than that. Some of them are still on the roots when they get them,” Baker said.

Before the aeroponics area was even thought of, the church would get their produce from The Neighborhood Harvest, with Baker looking fondly back on the church’s relationship with the Suffolk-based food delivery service and the need for the aeroponics area.

“When we first came here, we were so fortunate to have a neighborhood harvest next door, and they gave us fresh produce, but they’re no longer there. We don’t have that option anymore, and we do retail rescue, and the stores are very good to us, but when, and it’s unfortunate, when we get the produce, it’s at the end of life, and we have vowed not to give anybody anything that we wouldn’t put on our tables. We have a lot of people with chronic diseases that come through here. We have a lot of people who don’t get the best food because, as you know, we’re in a food desert, and a lot of them don’t have transportation. They can’t get the best stuff sitting on shelves. And when the grocery store gives it to us, it’s been sitting on their shelves, and then we don’t give it to them. We only give them the best of what we get,” Baker continued, “So we decided that it’s always been desire, but God opened the door that we could, you know, have the tower garden, and we could give them fresh produce and help to promote healthier living, healthier, eating, giving them healthier options, because I never want anybody feel like we’re giving them scraps and take what you can get.”

Baker said the towers became a reality thanks to grants from the Obici Healthcare Foundation and Food Lion’s charitable foundation, Food Lion Feeds.

Original Article: https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/suffolk-church-introduces-indoor-aeroponics-for-food-insecurity-880335bc