ComEd Partners With Local Organizations To Provide Locally Grown Nutrient Dense Produce
ComEd Partners With Local Organizations To Provide Locally Grown Nutrient Dense Produce
By Tia Carol Jones
ComEd recently celebrated food production with an agriculture pod in North Lawndale as part of a connection between ComEd and the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI). The agriculture pod was done in partnership with the Young Men’s Educational Network (YMEN).
YMEN’s mission is to prepare the young men and women in North Lawndale for leadership. YMEN offers educational support, mentoring and family support services. It also has an urban garden. EPRI has a national study with utilities across the country, one of the areas of interest is the Indoor Agriculture Industry. The research explores how utilities can deploy energy efficient technologies to support indoor agriculture.
ComEd initially found one partner organization for the agriculture pod. Then, found three more and now there are three agriculture pods that are part of the national EPRI study. In addition to YMEN, ComEd has partnered with Emerald South, Grow Greater Englewood and NIU for the agriculture pods. The pods are a shipping container with HVAC systems, LED lighting and environmental sensors, which enable the pod to optimize growing conditions throughout the year. It is hydroponic with precision-controlled pumps and everything to help boost the nutrition density of the produce that is grown in it.
Hannah McGoldrick, ComEd’s Manager of Smart Grid Programs, said the main reason why ComEd got involved was to ensure that they are providing locally sourced, nutrient-dense food to the communities that need it the most and it was a great opportunity for them to learn about the indoor agriculture industry. McGoldrick said that ComEd anticipates that the indoor agriculture could be a growing industry in the years to come.
“When we have these small-scale controlled environment agriculture units on our grid, we can understand the energy demands based on a variety of different factors,” she said. She added that those factors include outdoor temperature, indoor temperature and water usage.
McGoldrick said by ComEd being able to understand it on a small scale they can begin to understand what the potential looks like for a large-scale indoor agriculture unit to come onto its electrical grid and they can be prepared for that. With the agriculture pods, ComEd could partner with local organizations and use what they learn to contribute to the energy industry.
YMEN members harvest and distribute the food grown in the agriculture pod. McGoldrick said ComEd wanted to partner with YMEN because the organization is doing so much in North Lawndale ensuring that people in the community have access to locally sourced, nutrient-dense healthy food in what could be considered a food desert.
She said it was the perfect opportunity for ComEd to support YMEN’s mission and provide year-round access, which is something that is challenging in Northern Illinois because of the harsh winter conditions. With the agriculture pod, the produce can be grown and distributed year-round.
She said that ComEd is proud to be able to partner with YMEN and help with their mission and contribute to them reaching their goals of getting the produce to be as nutrient dense as possible.
For more information about ComEd, visit www.comed.com. For more information about YMEN, visit www.ymenchicago.com.
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