In senior living, food is rarely just about what is on the plate. Meals shape routines. Dining rooms create opportunities for connection. Familiar ingredients can bring back memories. And something as simple as watching fresh herbs grow can give residents a reason to stop, ask questions, and participate.

The organization provides a wide range of resources in the Chicago area, including a food pantry, job training, language instruction, legal guidance, and family support. Its indoor growing program grew out of the food pantry with a simple goal: bring more fresh food to the community.

UBC students are getting a taste of the future of local food production. On Oct. 6, UBC Food Services will harvest leafy greens from a compact indoor growing pod at the UBC Orchard Commons dining hall and serve them through campus dining.

The Flex Farm hydroponic growing systems are manufactured by Fork Farms, which provides detailed instructions on their usage.

Lettuce harvested in the system is the most commonly used crop in school lunch programs.

Standard shipping containers would fail immediately in an Alaskan winter; however, ruggedized "Arctic-ready" systems are built to withstand outside temperatures dropping below -40°F to -60°F while maintaining a steady 70°F internal growing environment.

Itawamba Agriculture High School’s (IAHS) agriculture program has added a hydroponics unit that lets students grow vegetables indoors without soil.

Heather Carpenter, diversified agriculture science teacher and Future Farmers of America advisor at IAHS, said the unit gives students hands-on experience with a new production style.

The Arkansas Colleges of Health Education Research Institute Health & Wellness Center expanded its hydroponic gardening efforts this summer by equipping area teachers with the tools and knowledge to bring hydroponics directly into their classrooms.

At Meadowbrook Apartments, growing fresh food is also growing curiosity, confidence, and connection.

Since 2023, the Meadowbrook Garden Club has been growing with a Flex Farm alongside the Heaven’s Windows team.

Arable Grow is combining hydroponics, climate-controlled environments and renewable energy to create modular urban farms capable of producing fresh produce closer to where consumers live.

A containerised controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) system has been christened ahead of its planned deployment to Bonaire, marking the next stage of a project focused on local food production, resource efficiency and decentralised growing.

While the lettuce-driven cyclospora outbreak has generally been bad for businesses across the nation—including some St. Louis chefs who’ve been forced to take extra precautions—the outbreak has come with an upside for one St. Louis-area startup.