APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Appleton International Airport will be the first in the country to provide fresh food options from a Fork Farms hydroponic Flex Farm, which is already growing food right in the middle of their concourse.
But one question some people might have: Why?
“We’re trying to provide travelers a healthier travel experience, and we think that healthier food is a good thing to do,” said Marketing Manager Patrick Tracey. “It’s so hard to eat on the go, so we’re just trying to do our part to provide travelers with the healthiest, freshest food that we can.”
The airport has been working with ThedaCare to provide more healthy menu selections as part of their ‘Making Healthy Connections Fly’ initiative. The program aims to ensure the best experience possible for each traveler who passes through the airport.
“We have two restaurants, and our menus have four ThedaCare heart-healthy items on the menu. Some of those items have proven to be the most popular items at the restaurant!” Tracey said.
Tracey first saw Fork Farms on the cover of Insight magazine this past spring, just as the airport was putting together their plans to mitigate the spread of COVID.
“We thought – wow – there might be an opportunity here to improve our food offerings,” Tracey explained. “The unit is so small and compact, we could literally set it up next to our restaurant on the concourse at the airport, which is where it is now.”
The Flex Farm hydroponic unit uses only water, air, nutrients, and LED lighting to grow 300 pounds of fresh greens annually – eliminating the need for soil, pesticides, and herbicides.
It also provides higher quality and fresher tasting options than anything the airport restaurants could have supplied before.
“All of our produce comes from California and Arizona, and by the time it gets picked, packaged, and trucked – it’s three and a half weeks before it gets here,” Tracey told WTAQ News. “When they get to full-size, we can pick them and then store them in the refrigerator. And they’ll be so fresh and tasty because they’ll only be in there for maybe a couple of days.”
Now if you order a sandwich, that doesn’t mean they’ll run over to the farm and pick your lettuce on the spot. The produce for the day will have likely been picked that morning or the day prior.
The produce isn’t quite ready yet either. Tracey says it was just planted a few weeks ago, so the plants are only a few inches tall right now.
