Gordon Food Service and Square Roots, Brooklyn, N.Y., announced plans for their partnership’s first urban farm campus location, to be constructed on the site of Gordon Food Service’s headquarters in Wyoming, Mich.
Plans for the flagship farm campus include 10 specially designed Square Roots shipping containers in direct production with four additional containers providing operational support. The containers will occupy less than two acres of Gordon Food Service’s 50-acre headquarters site, and are projected to produce more than 50,000 pounds of herbs annually.
Additionally, Square Roots will recruit and hire a class of new farmers to participate in its year-long Next-Gen Farmer Training Program.
“This partnership brings together technology, agriculture, young farmers and scalability in a model that could revolutionize our food systems. And, it’s wonderful to be starting in our own backyard,” says Rich Wolowski, North American president and CEO of Gordon Food Service.
Product will be available for purchase by commercial chefs and consumers shopping at Gordon Food Service’s area retail stores.
Construction and installation of the first container farm campus is expected to be completed by the fall, with growing operations beginning immediately thereafter.
“This partnership means we will grow delicious, local, real food at huge scale,” adds Tobias Peggs, co-founder and CEO of Square Roots. “We’re so happy to be working with a mission-aligned partner in Gordon Food Service, leveraging technology to bring real food to a huge number of people across the country, while delivering real social impact by empowering thousands of young people to become our country’s future farmers.”