SUFFOLK, Va. — A Suffolk church is tackling food insecurity with an indoor aeroponic farm that grows fresh vegetables without soil and gives them away for free.
Greater Works Community Outreach Ministries operates the "Garden of Eat'n," a vertical indoor farm that uses a growing method called aeroponics. Twenty gallons of water and nutrients sit at the base of each tower, flowing upward and directly onto the roots of the plants.
Valerie Baker, a minister and first lady at Greater Works Community Outreach Ministries, described how the system works.
"There are holes or a pipe that goes up the middle of the tower and it goes into the rain cap, and the water rains down on the roots of the plants, the plants don't get wet but it goes directly on the roots," Baker said.
Baker said the vertical system uses 90% less space and 95% less water than traditional growing methods.
"That's why we can get so many more plants with the space that we have, they're 28 pods in each garden so we can have 28 plants in each one and we have twelve," Baker said.
With 12 towers and 28 plants each, the church harvests every three weeks and replants immediately to keep up with demand. Lettuce, collards, basil, and cucumbers are among the many vegetables grown inside the Garden of Eat'n.
Baker said the program is especially important for residents in the area who face barriers to accessing fresh food.
"We're in a food desert, a lot of people don't have access, they don't have cars... food is so expensive and it's more expensive to eat healthy," Baker said.
Community members who visited the Garden of Eat'n left with fresh produce, including kale for soup and lettuce for salad.
The Garden of Eat'n is open the first three Wednesdays of each month, alongside the church's "House of Bread" program. On third Saturdays, the church also hosts a drive-up mobile pantry. The church will not be operating this Wednesday.
