Vertical Harvest Farms Announces Partnership with Sodexo
We’ve always believed that partnerships facilitate progress. Today, we are excited to announce an exciting new partnership with Sodexo Group to bring fresh, nutritious produce to college campuses across Maine! Sodexo, a global food service provider and one of Maine’s largest employers, will source as much as 80-percent of its lettuce products from Vertical Harvest.
Sodexo serves 13,000 meals daily at colleges and hospitals across Maine, including Central Maine Medical Center and Southern Maine Community College. All fourteen Sodexo partners, including collegiate campuses from Fort Kent to South Portland, will serve Vertical Harvest produce.
“We are a global company that is committed to spending locally,” says Varun Avasthi, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Sodexo. “One challenge we face when sourcing local food is Maine’s short outdoor growing season. The partnership with Vertical Harvest will be a game-changer for Sodexo’s ability to buy fresh produce twelve months per year,” Avasthi added.
Vertical Harvest breaks ground on our 70,000 square foot, four-story farm in downtown Westbrook later this summer. The master plan integrates residential apartments, commercial space and four-stories of parking. We’ll grow over 1-million pounds per year of local produce, create 50 jobs, and hire Mainers with physical and intellectual disabilities, says our CEO Nona Yehia.
“Our Maine Farm’s output will displace out-of-state produce and will not compete with local, traditional farms,” she says. “We are extremely proud to grow local food, and to create meaningful jobs for Maine’s underemployed.”
In 2015, Sodexo founded The Maine Course, a local organization with a mission to increase the company’s local food spend annually. Sodexo and Vertical Harvest will prepare for the first harvest, which is planned for the Fall 2022 academic year.
“This partnership illustrates how strategically the Maine business community works together,” says Glenn Cummings, President, University of Southern Maine. “The partnership between Sodexo and Vertical Harvest enforces our commitment to serving Maine-grown food whenever possible – it is a win-win,” Cummings said.
Read the full announcement here.
![We sat down to talk with disability advocate, civil rights lawyer and entrepreneur, Gina Kline. Here is what we learned!
🔍What is Social Security Income?
"The Social security system was conceived during a time with great economic inequality in this country. It is part of the very important fabric of the Public Safety Net in the United States and many of the folks that are qualified for Social Security are among the most economically vulnerable Americans and have the most sort of obvious or material unmet needs in terms of healthcare as well."
🗝What are the eligibility requirements of benefits?
"The Social Security eligibility is really a means tested program. Which means that folks that folks are eligible or below a certain income threshold and also have medical needs. There's a medical documentation part of it and a income documentation part of but on balance what it means is that you have not access to a certain level of income and you have disability needs."
💡What are the current issues that individuals face when receiving SSI benefits?
"For a while there is a low current threshold on the amount of savings that people Americans with Disabilities can have at any given time. I believe it hasn't been updated since the 19 early 1980s so that's how it's not it's not chained to the current cost of living with a disability. So, what we have is a community that is searching for viable upward mobility, meaningful work in a world in which so often people are given a Hobson's choice between being able to save and save for a rainy day and being able to access health care and needed benefits and support from these programs."
Watch the full video on youtube linked in our bio!
[Video Description: Female with hair to the side talking to the camera with caption in the forefront that reads "What is Social Security Income?" "Read the caption!"]
#DisabilityAdvocacy #Disability #DisabilityMatters #HumanRights #CivilRights #Leaders #Farming #VerticalFarming](https://verticalharvestfarms.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
