2023 LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER
Hello Levo Community,
As we approach the yearend, I want to share with you how grateful the whole Levo team is for your support of our mission. It is the help of people like you that enabled such a successful 2023!
It’s almost hard to believe it has only been one year. We kicked off 2023 piggybacking on the Franciscan and St Francis build team’s work in Jamaica and Puerto Rico to initiate an introduction (pre-pilot) program on each of those islands.
At the end of the winter we were able to secure a use agreement to put two unused 96’ greenhouses back into use and create our new base of operations. That was a task that required some money and a whole lot of helping hands, some coming hundreds of miles away to contribute to the process.
Even before those greenhouses were fully operational, we began training new growers in hydroponic farming methods. Over the year we offered training to more than 100 people, including our first cohort of high school job readiness trainees.
By spring time we were working hard with area healthcare providers to support their programming, including the installation of an indoor hydroponics system for the Hispanic Health Council and a roof top farm for Hartford Hospital’s Food4Health food pharmacy. Both of those projects are just the beginning of the impact we will have for the populations our partners serve.
And by fall we were activating the Garden Street Farm Initiative, which is an example of the Levo can do approach and the effectiveness of our model- twice activating urban farms in less than a month.
I closed out the year, with the cooperation of St Francis Builds, in Oaxaca, Mexico establishing our latest introduction program, which included training more than 30 high school students in basic hydroponics and sending them home with their very own hydroponic Bokits.
Meanwhile, in Haiti where it all started for Levo, the program continues to operate and grow steadily despite some of the worst political conditions in the world. One of the more unique things that Levo did in 2023 was publish a peer reviewed journal article which reported on research our talented U.S. based science team conducted in cooperation with our team in Haiti.
We have only just begun. We built some great momentum this year, but that means we have to work even harder in 2024 to keep that momentum building. As I said at the top, we wouldn’t be where we are without your contribution, and we won’t get where we can go without your continued support. There are a number of headwinds that we have to battle: environmental change, economic dislocation, political discord, and perhaps most difficult, institutional inertia. It can feel that the easiest thing to do is keep things the same they’ve always been. Despite these challenges, Levo has put into motion a series of new projects that build on the work we have done this year:
We are expanding the number of greenhouses we will use at Bloom Hill Farm to 5;
We will build more urban farms as part of the Garden Street Farm Initiative;
We will expand the CSA and Farm Stand programs;
We will install more roof top farms in support of Food as Medicine programs;
We will expand our workforce development and educational programs;
And
We will move our three newest international programs from introduction to full pilot, including the launch of an international service trip project.
Levo is a unique social enterprise. Our business model is rare; it requires a community, a strong community. Whether donor, volunteer, customer, organizational partner, resident of our impacted neighborhoods, or staff, the strength of the connection is strength of our organization. 2024 will be a year of scaling up our impact. We must grow our community for sure, but we must continue to strengthen our connections within that community.
Thank you for being part of our community. Thank you for your contributions to our impact. Thank you for all you do. May you have a joyful holiday season and a blessed new year.
Sincerely,
Christian Heiden
Founder of Levo International