SOUTH BEND — Ivy Tech Community College is considering bringing farming to downtown South Bend.
There will be a panel discussion at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Ivy Tech, 220 Dean Johnson Blvd., for the public to learn more about a proposal to build an indoor vertical farming operation through a partnership of Ivy Tech and Green Sense Farms, based in Portage.
Vertical farming is defined as the practice of cultivating plant life within a skyscraper greenhouse or on vertically inclined surfaces.
Ivy Tech and Green Sense Farms officials announced in August they were discussing partnering on a plan that would involve building a 20,000-square-foot growing operation on college-owned land near the South Bend campus, perhaps at a site on East Sample Street.
The panel discussion is intended to gauge community need and interest in the proposed $3 million project. Ivy Tech would be involved by developing training programs for future indoor farming professionals. Produce from the operation would be used in Ivy Tech’s culinary arts program.
Financial aspects haven’t yet been laid out in detail.
Wednesday’s event, which is free and open to the public, will be in Room 1121 on the South Bend campus.
The panelists will include Thomas Coley, chancellor of Ivy Tech’s north central and northwest regions; Robert Colangelo, a founder and chief executive officer of Green Sense Farms; Connie Neininger, economic development program manager, Indiana State Department of Agriculture; Mike Keen, director, sustainable studies program, Indiana University South Bend; and Alan Lloyd, director, Memorial Health & Lifestyles Center. Some area restaurant owners and food service professionals also are expected to attend.