Square Roots, GFS expand partnership with Wisconsin facility
Square Roots and Gordon Food Service recently celebrated their largest indoor farm to date, taking another step in their journey to build indoor farms together across North America.
The Kenosha, Wisconsin facility has the capacity to produce more than 2.4 million packages of fresh leafy greens and herbs annually.
“Our new farm in Kenosha, built with our strategic partner Gordon Food Service (GFS), is our largest and most advanced farm yet. Together, we can deliver high-quality, pesticide-free, fresh produce to local customers, all year round, often within hours of being harvested,” Tobias Peggs, co-founder and CEO of Square Roots, said in a news release. “Square Roots’ modular, smart-farm platform allows us to rapidly deploy capital-efficient, commercial-scale farms at strategic locations across the country, to meet the increasing demand for locally grown food everywhere.”
“By partnering with Square Roots, we are delivering on our intentions to make locally grown, nutritious produce available to all our customers, regardless of the local climate or time of year,” Rich Wolowski, CEO of Gordon Food Service, said in the release.
Located at the Gordon Food Service distribution center in Kenosha, Square Roots grows a wide variety of herbs, microgreens and salad mixes. Square Roots produce is available at retail stores across Wisconsin and Illinois, including Gordon Food Service Stores, as well as Gordon Food Service customer restaurants, and on e-commerce platforms. Square Roots is addressing the $37.3 billion total packaged produce category at retail, according to the news release.
The Kenosha farm was deployed using Square Roots’ modular, smart-farm technology platform. To manage the farm, Square Roots uses proprietary, cloud-connected software to constantly monitor and control multiple climates, enabling its farmers to grow a wide range of crops to meet local market needs.
Square Roots also operates commercial-scale indoor farms in Michigan, New York and Ohio.
Photo at top: Square Roots Kenosha Associate Grower, Shelby Sanderson, harvests cilantro at the indoor farm in Wisconsin. Photos: Square Roots
