A $730,000 multi-university initiative is helping researchers rethink how food is produced and delivered to improve access to fresh produce across region

“Food insecurity is one of the most urgent challenges facing our community, and it requires both immediate support and longer-term system change,” says Mayor Bryan Paterson. “Through the City’s Food Framework and the Fines for Food pilot, we are using an innovative, partnership-based approach to help local organizations provide fresh, nutritious food while strengthening Kingston’s local food system.

Inside the Greater Chicago Food Depository is a new garden of sorts. Fragrant herbs are sprouting from four high-tech hydroponic units. "We grow what the kitchen generally requests," said Mick O'Donnell, the food bank's hydroponic specialist. .

"We grow what the kitchen generally requests," said Mick O'Donnell, the food bank's hydroponic specialist. "Right now, basil and dill are a seasonal product.

Fork Farms has partnered with more than 5,000 institutions across 50 states and 22 countries. Together, those partners can grow nearly 2 million pounds of fresh food annually, and many are growing food for under $1 per pound. This matters because it means local food production can be practical, measurable, and economically competitive.

Nestled next to the Community of Change Center on Centralia Street in the West End sits an unassuming white freight container.

Inside, the 320-square-foot metal structure houses a drip irrigation hydroponics system that grows 2,500 pounds of produce annually.

The Ag Dept. is offering just over $400,000 in total funding this year from the federal Farm Bill.

The USDA also outlined a priority for "urban agriculture" projects: things like rooftop farming, community composts, shipping container farms, and other emerging agricultural practices.

The Living Food initiative is being developed in partnership with One Season Farmers and Harvest Today, combining indoor agriculture technology with a health-centered mission to improve access to fresh food, strengthen local food systems, and support long-term community wellness.

Freight farms are vertical farms built inside of repurposed shipping containers. They utilize hydroponic farming, in which plants are grown without soil and instead grow inside water-based solutions. The farms can be placed virtually anywhere and grow year-round because of their self-contained climate. The result is a high-yield farm that requires far less space than a traditional garden.

Access to fresh, healthy food is the cornerstone of strong, thriving communities. Yet in Denver’s Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea (GES) neighborhoods, within the 80216 ZIP code, many residents have long faced barriers to affordable, nutritious options and is considered a food desert. To create lasting change, we must think differently about how and where food is grown.

Two container farms on the grounds of Volunteers of America's Upstate New York campus have become a working part of how the organization addresses food insecurity among its clients. Running for two years, the programme supplies leafy greens, beans, root vegetables, and herbs to on-site shelters, a children's centre, and partner organizations in the surrounding community.

More than a decade ago, two students at the University of Ottawa, Alida Burke and Corey Ellis, were on a school trip to Nunavut when they got a firsthand look at food insecurity.

Two students looked around for a solution, but seeing none, decided to create one themselves. In 2016, they developed a modular, indoor farm in a shipping container. they called their new venture Growcer.

As southern Nevada works to strengthen food security amid an arid climate and limited arable land, University of Nevada, Reno Extension is offering an educational certificate series on indoor vertical farming, or hydroponics, to equip commercial growers, home gardeners, Master Gardener volunteers and educators with research-based expertise in soil-free vegetable farming.

For a decade, Growcer has been working alongside communities across Canada to prove that local, year-round food production is not only possible, it is transformative.

To expand the program, Delaware partnered with Growcer to add a modular vertical farm. The indoor farm can grow fresh produce year-round using less water and land than outdoor farming.

Located near the pantry, it will supply members with freshly harvested lettuces, leafy greens like kale and spinach, and herbs like mint and basil to take home.

After North Casper Elementary School closed its doors, the Casper Housing Authority bought the building and made a promise to the school district: to turn it into something positive.

That's how Urban Thistle Farm was born, and its mission is to alleviate the food desert in North Casper.