The master plan integrates residential apartments, commercial space and four-stories of parking. Vertical Harvest breaks ground on our 70,000 square foot, four-story farm in downtown Westbrook later this summer. The partnership with Vertical Harvest will be a game-changer for Sodexo’s ability to buy fresh produce twelve months per year,” Avasthi added. “One challenge we face when sourcing local food is Maine’s short outdoor growing season. “We are a global company that is committed to spending locally,” says Varun Avasthi, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Sodexo. All fourteen Sodexo partners, including collegiate campuses from Fort Kent to South Portland, will serve Vertical Harvest produce. Sodexo serves 13,000 meals daily at colleges and hospitals across Maine, including Central Maine Medical Center and Southern Maine Community College. 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. We’ve always believed that partnerships facilitate progress. To hear Trevor and Nona discuss this and other aspects of Vertical Harvest’s approach to employment and innovation, give a listen to the May 25 edition of the Farm Traveler Podcast or finding it on your favorite podcast app. They will be the leaders and teachers of tomorrow to help alleviate the most pressing problems on our planet,” Nana says. “They are not only contributing to a sea change of perception about what developmentally disabled populations can do and achieve, they also are leading the charge in the fastest growing industry in agriculture. Employees with Autism and Down Syndrome are leading farm teams and developing company procedures. “Innovation at its heart takes all sorts of perspectives and our employees are living proof that a holistic approach to customized employment works. The result is that working at Vertical Harvest brings out abilities in people and builds a business case and culture around that. Our Grow Well program takes this customized employment approach to heart, especially with our employees with intellectual and developmental disabilities, she says. Treating an individual holistically on the job means giving equal importance to all aspects of an individual’s wellbeing - mental, physical, emotional, social and spiritual. “I like to think of it as not just thinking and implementing change outside the box - but removing boxes completely,” Nona says. Taking a holistic approach means looking at something as a full, interconnected entity to understand the bigger picture. Vertical Harvest achieves this by taking a holistic approach to employment. One of her comments struck a specific chord with Trevor - that Vertical Harvest pairs the job to the individual and the individual to the job. Our CEO Nona Yehia had the honor recently to speak with Trevor Williams on the Farm Traveler Podcast.
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