As the entire world begins to care more about sustainability, nutrition and going green, more Senior Living Centers around the world are turning to container farms. In this article you’ll learn how container farms can help your senior living facility. Hydroponic farming allows you to serve more nutritious food, lower your food cost and enrich your Senior’s experience with extracurricular activities such as tours or gardening classes.
What is a Shipping Container Farm?
A container farm is an indoor, micro-farm located inside of a shipping container. They were developed as a sustainable and mobile agricultural practice. A container farm combines three innovative indoor farming techniques to cultivate crops. First, they use hydroponic growing systems instead of traditional farming methods. This means container farms use water to give nutrients to the plants instead of soil. Second, they use vertical farming techniques to maximize yield in such a small space. Vertical farming grows crops in vertically stacked layers, like on towers or shelves. This allows more crops to be grown per square foot than in traditional farming. Finally, container farms use controlled environment agriculture (CEA) technology. This tech lets you replicate the ideal climate for your chosen crops by adjusting environmental factors, like humidity and temperature. These three techniques, combined with artificial lighting, are how container farms can yield up to 400 pounds of produce each month in only 320 square feet.
How A Container Farm Can Help Your Senior Living Center
- Join the Local Food Movement. By adding a container farm to your Senior Living Center, you instantly join the local food movement. The Local Food Movement aims to connect food producers and consumers in the same geographic region, to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local economies; or to affect the health, environment, community, or society of a particular place. The Local Food Movement has grown from 100 million dollars in 2004 to over 4.8 billion dollars a year in 2020! A recent survey shows that nutritious good tasting food is a priority for 67% of senior living center members!
- Lower Your Food Costs While Serving Healthier More Nutritious Food! What if we told you that with a container farm from pure greens you can serve healthier, more nutritious, food while lowering your produce costs by up to 75% a month? Additionally, Container farms use 90% less water, 100% less soil and 90% less space than a traditional farm, so you will not just be saving money you will be saving the Earth.
- Keep Your Seniors Active with Classes and Farming! Another great reason to add a container farm from pure greens to your senior living center is because Seniors love to farm! Almost 40% of all DIY farmers are over 55 and there are a wide variety of health benefits associated with farming as well. Your seniors will love growing their own produce!
Senior Living Center Case Study
In 2015 Commonwealth Senior Living at Charlottesville in Charlottesville, Va. introduced a hydroponic garden inside its dining facility. Residents can now select from over 45 varieties of leafy greens, herbs and microgreens grown in-house, which has resulted in consumption of nutrient-rich greens increasing by 35%. Commonwealth expanded their program adding additional farms and establishing a new fruit and vegetable growing program for seniors. Earlier this year Commonwealth was awarded a 2020 Argentum Best of the Best Award for its hydroponic farming program.
The Next Step
Ready to see how a Pure Greens Container Farm could impact your Senior Living Center? The next step is to set up a quick discovery call with our team. On this call, we will answer all the questions you have bringing a container farm to your Senior Center. All you have to do to set up is fill out the contact form and one of our friendly knowledgeable farming experts will get in touch. We hope to hear from you soon!
