Square Roots and Gordon Food Service held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 16 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to celebrate their largest indoor farm built to date.
“Our new farm in Kenosha, built with our strategic partner Gordon Food Service, 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,” said Tobias Peggs, co-founder and CEO, Square Roots.
“Square Roots’ modular, smart-farm platform allows us to rapidly deploy capital-efficient, commercial-scale farms at locations across the country, to meet the demand for locally grown food everywhere.”
Located at the Gordon Food Service distribution center in Kenosha, Square Roots grows a wide variety of fresh greens, including herbs like basil, dill, parsley and cilantro; microgreens; and salad mixes. Its produce is available at local retail stores across Wisconsin and Illinois, including Gordon Food Service Stores, as well as Gordon Food Service customer restaurants, and on e-commerce platforms.
“We love food. 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,” said Rich Wolowski, CEO of Gordon Food Service. “With each farm, we are a step closer to our goals of locally grown and delicious food across the continent.”
The Kenosha farm was deployed using Square Roots’ modular, smart-farm technology platform. To manage the farm, the company uses proprietary, cloud-connected software to monitor and control multiple climates, enabling its farmers to grow a range of crops to meet local market needs.
In addition to Kenosha, the company operates commercial-scale indoor farms in Michigan, New York and Ohio.
Square Roots has a range of fresh produce, available in 300 retail locations around the country, including Gordon Food Service Stores, Whole Foods Market, SpartanNash corporate stores, Fresh Thyme Market, Meijer’s market format stores, Busch’s Fresh Food Market, Fresh Direct and Getir.
Square Roots’ partnership with Gordon Food Service reinforces a larger shared ambition to build commercial-scale, climate-controlled indoor farms together across the continent, enabling local food at a global scale.
