Growing Change, One Salad At A Time

Who Gets to Eat Well?

In The Problem with Feeding Cities, sociologist Andrew Deener shows how the systems that move food, trucks, stores, packaging, policies, are a kind of social infrastructure. They create abundance for some neighborhoods and scarcity for others. Our project starts from that truth and builds a different kind of infrastructure, small and close to home.
We grow lettuce on school-site hydroponic towers and turn it into 100 free, plastic-free salads each week. A $5 partner salad at local restaurants funds the loop: hyperlocal production → direct funding → community benefit. It’s simple on purpose. Less distance, less waste, more trust.
This is not just gardening; it’s redesigning how food gets to people. Students run the system, learn ag-tech and business, and publish real metrics, water saved, plastic avoided, CO₂e reduced, cost per head, so anyone can see what changed and by how much. The goal is to keep building the scaffolding that lets more students, families, and schools eat well and to prove that when we change the infrastructure, we change the outcome.

Salads Served

Gallons of Water Saved

Pounds of Plastic Eliminated

3-Step Impact Loop

We Grow

School-site hydroponic towers produce fresh romaine with ~90% less water and zero single-use plastic. Students run seeding → transplant → harvest, logging pH/EC, yield, and cost per head so every salad is traceable and safe.

What it means: local food, real skills, clean data.

We Partner

Local restaurants add a “Peace Salad” to the menu and contribute $5 per salad. Sponsors can fund a tower at a school and receive quarterly impact reports (salads funded, water saved, plastic avoided, CO₂e reduced).

What it means: dollars flow directly into production—no middlemen.

We Serve

Those dollars become free, plastic-free salads for students and families—about 100 each week—distributed through cafeterias, pantries, and community partners with dignity and zero waste. A loop that pays for itself.

What it means: hyperlocal production → direct funding → community benefit.

Partner With Us

Restaurant

Add a “Peace Salad.” Fund real change.
Put a Peace Salad on your menu and contribute $5 per sale to power school-site hydroponic towers and free, plastic-free salads for students. 1 Peace Salad funds 2+ free Healthy Salad Meals.

What you do

Feature the Peace Salad (we provide menu copy + pricing guidance).
Share a short blurb at the table/online with a QR to our live impact dashboard.

What you get

Quarterly impact report (salads funded, water/plastic/CO₂e saved).
Co-marketing kit: table tents, window decal, social assets, press blurbs.
Staff volunteer day options and student thank-you notes to display.

Student

Grow food. Run ops. Lead a team.
Join the tower crew to seed, transplant, harvest—and track the data that proves impact.

Roles

Grow Team: pH/EC, sanitation, harvest QC.
Data Team: yield + cost per head; water, plastic, CO₂e metrics.
Ops & Media: delivery logs, partner updates, photo/video storytelling.

What you get

Hydroponic Ag-Tech Certificate (hours + skills verified).
2-CR UCSB Extension
Leadership experience, community service hours, letters of rec.
A project you can point to in college apps and interviews.

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School

Host a tower. Serve your community.
Start a site on campus and turn hyperlocal production into ~100 free salads a week (scale to fit). We help you design a program that fits your school community.

We provide