A new greenhouse facility will come to Torrington, CT - in addition to providing fresh, local, pesticide-free produce to residents of New England, it will also offer something else: economic opportunities to disadvantaged citizens.
New Opportunities is a community action agency that serves Waterbury, Meriden, Torrington and 27 surrounding Connecticut towns, offering a variety of social service programs designed to eliminate poverty and assist people in need. In accordance with the mission of New Opportunities, the Agency aims to increase the self-sufficiency of its customers and support their move out of poverty toward a more middle-class lifestyle. As part of their Food 4 Thought initiative, New Opportunities is planning to build three hydroponic greenhouses in Torrington.
Years in the making
The decision to build the greenhouses didn't happen overnight. New Opportunities has been working on the development of a Controlled Environment Agriculture production facility for over three years. A business team working with the New Opportunities Foundation spent over a year evaluating controlled environment agriculture technologies and providers. After an extensive search and several interview meetings, New Opportunities chose AmHydro as the best and most experienced team to fit their needs, Joe Swartz, Vice President with AmHydro, tells us.
From left to right: Bill Rybczyk, Director of Research, Development, and Planning at New Opportunities; Joe Swartz, AmHydro; Jon Jensen, of The Corporate Advisory, Co, LLC.
In 2019, after the decision was made to partner with AmHydro, the project was quickly designed, developed, and manufactured by AmHydro and their technology partners. This new facility is the realization of their original project, which was first proposed in 2016.
Growing, packing and shipping
The initial greenhouse is 15,000 square feet, but an additional 40,000 square feet of land has been prepped for phase two expansion immediately following deployment of phase one. In addition, a 10,000 square foot packing, shipping, and office facility will also be constructed as part of phase one. "The main growing system is AmHydro’s unique 'Smart Spacing' movable NFT System, which allows twice the weekly production of standard, fixed-spacing hydroponic systems", Joe explains. "The facility will also feature state of the art climate control systems, rain water collection, thermal heat screen retention and mechanized plant moving systems."
Food and jobs for locals
The goal of this initial project is to not only generate revenue for the foundation, but also provide local residents and regional grocery chains such as Whole Foods, Stop and Shop and Big Y pesticide free lettuce and leafy greens, living wage “green jobs” to local residents and sound economic opportunities for disadvantaged residents in the program. To achieve this goal, AmHydro has also partnered with Atlas Greenhouse, ATOM Controls, and Borghesi Builders to complete this project.
For more information:
AmHydro
1 (800) 458-6543
[email protected]
amhydro.com