Container Farm Case Study: Second Harvest Food Bank, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Second Harvest Heartland, a food bank in Minneapolis, Minnesota, runs a shipping container farm inside the organization’s larger distribution warehouse. In a phone conversation, Second Harvest Heartland’s Produce Director Bob Branham explained the inspiration behind the project. Second Harvest seeks to provide fresh, nutritious produce year round to those experiencing food insecurity, but shipping expenses and the short shelf life of fresh produce makes it difficult to keep up with demand in the winter months. The shipping container farm at Second Harvest is part of a growing effort nationally for food banks to meet the needs for fresh produce by moving from a solely food distribution model to also producing food.
With donor support, Second Harvest Heartland acquired a Freight Farms shipping container farm in late 2017. The farm has been in production since early 2018 and produces about 5,000 pounds of fresh leafy greens each year. Bob’s long-term goal is to scale indoor food production to as much as 250,000 pounds per year by retrofitting Second Harvest’s warehouse for indoor growing. For now, though, the shipping container farm is helping to create excitement on multiple levels about the potential for indoor agriculture to address food insecurity.
While Bob notes that it would have been cheaper for year one to have purchased the produce outright, the shipping container farm created an enormous of other benefit for the food bank, starting with employee engagement and excitement about the future of food. The broader communities of agency partners and foodbanks appreciate that Second Harvest Heartland is innovating and striving to become more than just a food distributor. The shipping container farm functions as an appealing and exciting community engagement piece, and inspires people to contribute to the food bank and to get involved as volunteers. Bob explains,
“Part of it is socializing that food banks don’t just have to rely on end of shelf donation. This is a very unique proposition. Employees - especially younger ones - respond well to this kind of innovation. Everyone and their brother wants to see the farm. Donors want to put their money into this project.”
The container farm grown leafy greens are donated to local meal programs. Donating produce to meal programs in the area supports new menu items such as salads that did not previously exist due to supply issues. One community meal program, run under the umbrella of Pillsbury United Communities has also acquired a Freight Farms shipping container farm through a donor supported purchase. The Pillsbury United meal program serves fresh produce that was grown in the farm on the same site as the dining room and kitchen.
There are some challenges to the shipping container farm at Second Harvest. While the farm was marketed to produce 8,000 pounds of produce per year, the Second Harvest farm grows only about 5,000 pounds due to cleaning and maintenance schedules. The long term vision is to scale up the project to a larger warehouse production, because at best, the container farm will provide only a tiny percentage of the thirteen million pounds of food Second Harvest distributes each year. However, as Bob points out, the advantage to the farm extends far beyond the amount of leafy greens it grows:
“The farm gets people excited. People appreciate the innovation. Whether it’s a tour of 40 people or two people, the main thing they will say is, ‘That is so cool! That is so cool.’ I’ve heard it about a million times. People are impressed that a food bank is trying to be in front of a food production line. We are delighted with the year of learning. We have modified what crops to grow and techniques. It continues to inspire. I don't see that changing. We are going to stay in container until we decide to scale.”