How SEFCU and Boys & Girls Club teamed up to make a difference through container farming.

SEFCU saw an excellent opportunity to expand their corporate philanthropy program by empowering their community to start container farming. Together, SEFCU and Boys & Girls Club are supporting important education, nutrition, and job creation in Troy, New York. The result is a “circle of win” that unites and lifts everyone up together.

SEFCU: Corporate Social Responsibility & Employee Engagement

SEFCU Chief Community Officer Kathy Lanni first saw the impact a community hydroponic farm could have during a presentation at the 2015 World Business Forum in New York City. As the person overseeing all philanthropic activities at SEFCU, she was instantly excited about how hydroponic farming could be used to support one of the company’s key philanthropy ‘pillars’: hunger.

In spite of all the time and resources that Kathy had organized to support food banks, soup kitchens, and food pantries in Albany, NY, she felt that there was an opportunity to do even more.

Freight-Farms-SEFCU-Hunger — “We realized that we and our community were good at “serving” [the] problem [of hunger] and our President and CEO Michael Castellana wanted to start solving the problem.”

- Kathy Lanni, Chief Community Officer at SEFCU
Image from Times Union

This is where she felt a community hydroponic farm could fill in the missing piece. Upon discovering Freight Farms, the SEFCU team was immediately excited about the farm’s potential, with three key factors standing out compared to hydroponic options:

The farming environment was self-contained, temperature-controlled, and safe from contamination.
The farm could be monitored and controlled from your phone, meaning problems can be resolved remotely.
The farm was able to grow the equivalent of one acre of land, meaning it could be used for income-generating activities.

In 2018, SEFCU purchased their first farm to test if it truly met the Freight Farms claim of allowing anyone, anywhere to farm 365 days a year.

Freight-Farms-SEFCU-BBGCCA — “It was our intent to prove the concept and then deploy farms out into our community to nonprofit partners as a social enterprise. The goal was to empower our nonprofit partners to grow healthy produce, then sell that produce to generate an income stream to support their programming and self-sustainability.”

- Kathy Lanni, Chief Community Officer at SEFCU
Image from Times Union

The SEFCU team was not disappointed. The farm quickly proved its merits and the resulting produce became a source of great pride for the entire SEFCU staff, who kept up with the farm’s progress through regular updates and a special farm blog. SEFCU assigned a full-time farmer that harvested produce that was donated in its entirety. Knowing how their farm is helping the larger community fills the whole SEFCU staff with immense pride.

FreightFarms-SEFCU-Community-Farm — “We hear so many success stories about changes in eating habits and gratitude from our pantries, shelters, and nonprofit organizations that receive our crops. It is very uplifting – we know we are making a difference.”

- Kathy Lanni, Chief Community Officer at SEFCU

Hear directly from the SEFCU farmer!

Boys & Girls Club: Education, Nutrition & Community Development

Having proven the farm’s viability with its own farm, SEFCU has set an ambitious goal to deploy two farms per year to communities in their area. One of the main organizations SEFCU is working with is the Boys and Girls Club of the Capital Area (BGCCA) in Troy, NY.

Long before donating the first farm, SEFCU has supported BGCCA, seeing it as a lifeline for our youth, especially at-risk youth, to provide support, education, mentorship, and character-building in a safe, inclusive, and caring environment. The BGCCA Freight Farm provides inner-city youth ages 3-19 with hands-on STEAM learning opportunities. It is overseen by Camron McKinley, BGCCA Director of Operations, who is responsible for maintaining farm operations, creating, and facilitating all the farm programs.

SEFCU_Boys & Girls Club.jpg — “The Freight Farm program provides an unbelievable opportunity...to connect the science aspect of farming with our healthy habits programming.”

- Camron McKinley, Director of Operations at BGCCA

These programs include a variety of activities for young farmers and the greater community. For the Boys & Girls Club club, time at the farm is dedicated to learning farm operations, such as planting, growing, and harvesting leafy greens. The participants are also encouraged to build healthy habits as they learn the importance of nutrition and making positive food choices.

Programming 5.jpg — “Our goal is to teach youth by providing them with access to hands-on learning tools…to understand important topics such as urban farming, eating healthy, running a business and building sustainable revenue, and educating our community about Freight Farm technology.”

- Camron McKinley, Director of Operations at BGCCA

Beyond the youth participants, BGCCA works to involve the greater Troy community. Community initiatives include: hosting volunteers to help with farm activities, giving other community agencies and partners guidance for using Freight Farms technology, and providing community members with free produce.

In this way, the whole community comes together to grow an exciting variety of herbs, edible flowers, lettuce, and arugula. Not only do Club and community members get greens to take home, but the produce is regularly used in BGCCA’s food program, which serves 250,000 meals annually. What they don’t give away or cook themselves, BGCCA sells to local restaurants and at local farmers markets, creating a valuable income stream to support the organization. With just one farm, SEFCU and BGCCA have created a community network connecting corporate companies, non-profit organizations, local businesses, and residents around the joys of growing food.