YMCA Celebrates First Freight Farm Anniversary With Lettuce Giveaway
September 29, 2025
Gateway Academy Principal Brian Edmunds at the YMCA Freight Farm on the school’s campus. (WHAV News photograph.)
The Haverhill YMCA is hosting a harvest party to celebrate the second anniversary of its Freight Factory hydroponic farm at the city’s Gateway Academy.
The party is Wednesday, Oct. 2, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Gateway Academy, 415 Primrose St., Haverhill. Participants are invited to tour the garden and pick their own lettuce.
The indoor container garden is called a “freight farm” because it is set up inside a 40-by-8-foot shipping container painted on the sides in bright colors with the message “The Y Feeds Kids.” As WHAV reported when it opened in October 2023, it was heralded at the first farm of its kind operated by a YMCA in country.
The farm is used as a teaching tool to help students learn about the origins of their food, how to grow vegetables from seed and about healthy eating choices. Beth Israel Lahey Health provided the Y with a $165,000 grant to cover the initial installation and the city supplied $30,000 to cover electrical work.
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