Mid-Ohio Food Collective opens smart farm in the Hilltop

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- In central Ohio, many families are struggling with food insecurity and hunger.

NBC4 is proud of the Mid-Ohio Farm. It's located right behind the station's studios and provides produce to its neighbors in what has become a food desert. 

On Tuesday, the Mid-Ohio Food Collective celebrated another urban farm with the grand opening of its seven-acre "smart farm" in the Hilltop neighborhood.

Experts say the best way to fight food insecurity and hunger isn't just with food banks, but that it's important to strengthen the local food system. In the Hilltop, that means growing healthy crops in less space and educating the next generation of urban growers.

This new "smart farm" will serve as an educational hub and demonstration space for high-tech growing techniques. It focuses on making every acre count by maximizing the space they have and putting as much of the food they grow into the market as possible. 

Mid-Ohio Food Collective CEO Matt Habash said it will be a big teaching tool for the community. 

"This was a step for us to really say where's our food come from? How do we grow it? How can we educate people? How can we learn new techniques or ways of doing this?" Habash said. "So, it's a whole new edu-farm, smart farm, kind of work. For us, it's a way of giving back to the community."

There's a seed starting station and a demonstration kitchen. Habash said they want to excite people, particularly kids, about where their food comes from. He said they want to ultimately encourage them to get into careers in agriculture. 

"That's a big part of this to us," Habash said. "We all better be worried about how old our farmers are and, you know, where our food is going to come from in the future."

Farm Director Trevor Horn said their controlled environment is one of the unique features of the Hilltop farm. The hydroponic systems are similar to the ones at the Mid-Ohio Farm located right behind NBC4. 

"We've got 300 vertical towers as opposed to the 94 that are at NBC which allows us at the current moment to have 6,000 heads of lettuce currently being ready to harvest in the next couple of weeks," Horn said. 

Horn said they want to give people the ability to be educated consumers. He said by closing the gap on how far food has to travel to get to dinner tables, it allows us to be more economically stable.

"It's important to take a look at what our food system looks like as we look at accessibility," Horn said. "Educating folks that food is health and the importance of their choices impacting what producers grow for us. And the more they spend on local and healthier foods, more nutritionally dense foods, the more stable our economic base can be here in Columbus."

The farm sits on the very western edge of the old community hospital site. Habash said there was a lot of construction material, like footers, left over from the old hospital which is why they're growing up in high tunnels and greenhouses.

The farm is now open for group tours and volunteer shifts by appointment. To sign up to volunteer, schedule a tour, donate, or learn how the Mid-Ohio Farm program is making every acre count, click here.