Levo International is developing an education and engagement center in Hartford to teach people about food security strategies and new agricultural technology, officials said.
The nonprofit is planning on repurposing a long-abandoned lot at 441 Homestead Ave., located near the city’s bustling Albany Avenue, to turn into an agriculture education center. The site is not intended to be a strictly agricultural operation, but will maintain enough agriculture to support education and retail initiatives, according to executive director Bill Heiden. The nonprofit currently has a 25-year lease on the property that was signed in April, he said.
“There will be an education component to this property and allow for a community gathering space,” Heiden said. “But most importantly, this will be a farm stand type of retail that will allow the North End to get fresh produce. We have been doing a consistent soft launch. We have demonstration projects already starting there. We’re working on the final design and we expect to be finished about this time next year.”
The property will be a training and demonstration site for those who are joining the Levo team as hydroponic technicians as well as for the community at large, Heiden said. Hydroponic farming involves plants growing in a nutrient solution rather than soil. Oftentimes plants are grown in PVC pipes, which makes urban farming possible since land is often scarce. Levo works with a number of local churches and organizations to create a network of growers and buyers in Greater Hartford.
“The benefit of Levo’s simple hydroponics and protocols is that training new farmers without experience is easier than traditional agriculture and therefore we can hire from a wide range of community members,” Heiden said.
Heiden noted that the site will produce around 50,000 pounds of produce annually. The project also plans to create full and part-time jobs for as many as 25 people.
Levo has around 30 urban farmers in the city growing crops from their own backyards. The organization has grown from just four employees a few years ago to now having over 40, Heiden said.
The nonprofit works in the city by creating an ecosystem of micro-farmers who grow crops in their own backyards and providing growers with the equipment needed to get started. In return, these micro-farmers are offered a financial market to sell their produce to buyers throughout Greater Hartford.
‘In this country, we don’t necessarily have a calorie problem in food deserts, we have a quality problem,” Heiden said. “What we’re looking to do is to upset the system a little bit where large dollars subsidize corn production in the Midwest, which ultimately makes corn syrup, that is relatively unhealthy. We’re trying to bring that production back to the local level which means more whole foods, which is generally more healthy food. More hyper-local production changes the quality of food available in a food desert.”
Over the last two years, the nonprofit has been buying up vacant lots in the city to turn into neighborhood farms, offering a larger scale production. The group utilizes a portion of the former Lebon Press building and parking lot at 77 Homestead Ave. Most of the building and parking lot space is owned by Trinity Health but about 12,000 square feet is city owned.
Levo expects to expand its footprint in 2026, and has so far secured a combined 3.5 acres of land for their North Hartford Farming Initiative. In addition to 441 Homestead Ave., the nonprofit also has leases on 280 Enfield St., 445 Garden St. and 131 Coventry St. for hydroponic food production sites.
Levo’s model focuses on bridging gaps between communities, Heiden said. By creating the location on Homestead Avenue, Heiden said Levo can underwrite the cost of making vegetables and other essential food products that are traditionally expensive, by also selling to people traveling to downtown Hartford through Homestead Avenue. The area is a major commuter stretch for workers coming into downtown.
Hartford residents will receive a highly reduced membership cost to provide discounts on most goods like fresh vegetables, he said.
“A community garden is different from a neighborhood farm, because a community can be people living miles away, but our focus is hyper-local,’ Heiden said. “This is really for the people in that neighborhood. We want this property to benefit North neighborhood residents.”
For a city of approximately 125,000 residents, getting access to healthy and fresh food means having to travel outside the city’s borders to neighboring wealthier communities. Transportation is often a barrier to access as 35% of households in the city do not own cars, according to state data.
The city as a whole, like many urban food deserts around the country, has seen an exodus of grocery store chains over the last 50 years. In 1968, Hartford had 13 chain-owned supermarkets. By 1984, the number was just two — a Stop & Shop and a Finast supermarket on New Britain Avenue, according to a previous Courant article. In 1993, Finast turned into Edwards Super Foods across the line on Kane Street in West Hartford. Edwards was bought out in 1996.
Over the last two decades, only one grocery store has opened in the city, but it closed less than a year after opening in 2011. In contrast, neighboring Glastonbury, with a smaller population of just 35,000 according to the 2020 census, has more than five major chain grocery stores, according to Google Maps data.
The North End has long been considered a food desert, according to Heiden. The city has had several failed attempts to establish a grocery store for residents. There are currently no full-scale farming operations in Hartford. The site intends to be the largest source of Hartford-grown produce and to create a permanent source of vegetables for neighborhood residents.
Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com.
food deserts, Bill Heiden, food security, Hartford, Greater Hartford, Homestead Ave, food
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