The small, 3,000-square-foot warehouse at the end of Oak Street in Hackensack is filled with big ideas. It houses Greens Do Good, a vertical hydroponic farm where greens such as kale, basil and cilantro are planted, cared for, and harvested by adults on the autism spectrum.
“We are trying to educate the community on the importance of eating locally and knowing where your food comes from. That is one of the things we are doing. The second thing is that we are employing, supporting, and training adults with autism,” Director of Operations Jennifer Faust said. The vertical farm serves as training that can lead to employment opportunities for people who often don’t have many options after they "age out" of education programs at 21, said the Reed staff.
Ridgewood’s Peter Ban and his wife, Jennie Ban, agree. They worried about the day their son Finnigan, who is autistic, would “graduate to the couch,” Peter Ban said. Finnigan is smart. He understands everything that is said but has “a hard time speaking, so he has a hard time communicating with people,” said Jennie Ban. “When you ask him a question, it takes him a very long time to answer.” The parents worried that the long sentences that come from Finnigan’s mouth and tend to confuse some, would stop him from making his way in the world.
“At 20 years old he sees the other kids going off to college and getting jobs, and he wants to do that. Schools have great programs, but then what? The employment level of people with special needs is exceptionally low. That is hard on parents,” Peter Ban said. “But they are just as impaired at 21 as they were at 20," Faust said. “More than half of 25-year-olds with autism have never held a paying job.”
When compared with other disabilities, "young adults with autism had the lowest rate of employment," stated a report by Drexel University's A.J. Drexel Autism Institute.
“We call him Farmer Finn. It gives him a sense of pride and hope that these kids don’t always get,” Peter Ban said. Finnigan has a new purpose. He’s found a side of himself no one knew he had. It might even lead to a career. Peter Ban remembered what it felt like to see his son working in the warehouse. "I went to see him after he had been there for a while, so he had learned certain skills and the sense of pride that he had showing me what he could do and that that could be his job," he said. "I think they could take these processes that they have developed and expand them into a larger footprint. If a regional or national grocery store chain said, 'Hey, we want to acquire scallions,' these guys could do that. Think of all the jobs they could create."
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