North Hartford Farming Initiative

Levo’s multi-faceted approach to ending one of the worst food deserts in the United States. The NHFI targets a wide range of poverty and educational disparities that exist with a novel approach. Our approach uses innovative technology, extensive partnerships across ages and communities, and importantly an aggressive timeline.

 

Urban Hope Refuge Church on Westland St., Hartford

Program Goals:

  1. Elimination of food insecurity through permanent retail of healthy, affordable food

  2. Production of 1 million pounds of fresh produce annually in Hartford by 2030

  3. Increased employment, focusing on youth employment and workforce development up to 100 Hartford residents by 2028

  4. Community education to thousands of Hartford residents each year.

  5. Conversion of blighted, vacant lots in Hartford into attractive farms

North Hartford

2025 North Hartford Sites

Levo expects to expand our footprint in 2026, but has for the Spring of 2025 secured a combined 3.5 acres of land for the NHFI.

441 Homestead Ave- Destination Retail and Education Site

280 Enfield St- Hydroponic Food Production

445 Garden St- Hydroponic Food Production

131 Coventry St- Hydroponic Food Production

441 Homestead Ave: Food Access

A grocery store in North Hartford, long talked about, has yet to materialize. In the short term, Levo is creating a retail destination on the Homestead Ave Corridor that will provide Levo with a prime location to demonstrate what is possible for Hartford’s vacant lots.

High-Traffic Farmstand: Levo will offer premium vegetables and other food products starting June 2025, focusing on local. To underwrite subsidized pricing to the Hartford community, Levo will leverage the suburban market.

Education: Levo will build teaching greenhouses and community education space to provide community programming around hydroponics, gardening, and nutritional education to the surrounding community.

280 Enfield St: Hydroponic Farm

A property that has sat vacant for decades. Levo will build several year-round greenhouses and hundreds of hydroponic systems.

Fully built by the end of 2025, it will be capable of producing up to 100 thousand pounds of fresh vegetables a year and employ a dozen Hartford residents.