Shipping Container Transformed Into Indoor Farm That Feeds Immigrants For Free: 'Forefront of Innovative Agriculture'

Nour El-Naboulsi is a Burlington, Vermont farmer — but he doesn’t tend to a field of crops or a clearing of cattle.

As the executive director of Village Hydroponics, El-Naboulsi oversees the operations of a vertical hydroponic farm inside of a recycled shipping container.

Village Hydroponics came out of the success of El-Naboulsi’s other project, a mutual aid food distribution collective called The People’s Farmstand. The initiative supplies fresh, culturally relevant food to underserved communities in the area, bringing together other local farmers to grow and share surplus produce in peak growing seasons.

But El-Naboulsi saw a gap in the availability of fresh produce — especially among New American communities — during Vermont’s harsh winters. He decided to shape up a shipping container for the job.

El-Naboulsi told Vermont Public Radio the project serves a diverse community of Nepali, Somali, Iraqi, Congolese, and Burundi families.