Ford Motor Company Fund supports ‘freight farm’
The Ford Motor Company Fund, a CMF corporate member, donated a 40-foot shipping container to be used as a freight farm to grow vegetables for those who are experiencing homelessness.
Content excerpted and adapted from The Detroit News. Read the full article.
The Ford Motor Company Fund, a CMF corporate member, donated a 40-foot shipping container to be used as a freight farm to grow vegetables for those who are experiencing homelessness.
It’s part of a $250,000 grant to Cass Community Social Services through the Ford Motor Farm project.
With the use of a hydroponic system and LED lighting, the farm operates without pesticides, sunlight or soil. It also uses 90 percent less water than an outdoor garden.
It will produce vegetables for 700,000 meals.
“It means fresh produce all year round, which is really huge,” Faith Fowler, executive director of Cass Community Social Services said.
The project was the idea of a “Thirty under 30” team, Ford’s philanthropic leadership program, according to Jim Vella, president of the Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services.
The group initially thought to create a farm in the bed of a Ford F-150, and that idea evolved into the idea of growing vegetables inside a shipping container.
Cass Community Social Services received earlier this year a Ford F-150 with a garden bed that is used to teach healthy eating habits at local schools. The Ford Mobile Farm runs during the spring and fall.
As for the freight farm, the first crops will be ready within the next few weeks.