For a few moments early Friday morning, an 80-foot-by-40-foot shipping container the size of a semi hung high in the air, suspended by a huge crane.
The construction site off Constance Avenue just north of Turnstone's adaptive sports complex is a bit different from most – the shipping container isn't for storage, a contractor's office or even housing. It's going to become part of a farm.
CASS Housing, a Fort Wayne nonprofit that has been busily building homes with customized living arrangements for adults with developmental disabilities including autism and Down syndrome, is sprouting a new program. The organization plans to use the containers to grow produce.
David Buuck, CASS founder and executive director, said the idea is to provide not only food but “meaningful days” for the 15 residents of what will soon be five homes. And the organization has even bigger aspirations – it recently applied to the Fort Wayne Plan Commission to locate another 15 trailers on a lot on Homewood Drive in Washington Township to scale up the growing.
Buuck hopes to grow enough produce to sell to members of the Fort Wayne community through a subscription service, to other nonprofit organizations and, potentially, at wholesale and retail. Money from sales would be plowed back not only into the farm but also into building more homes for a growing list of potential residents. Buuck said that list now stands at about 200.
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