LEVO International

Our Pollinator Project Partner

Christian Heiden of LEVO presented on February 5th.

The organization started as an Eagle Scout project concerning hydroponic gardens, but he and his family had bigger ideas.

From their website:

Levo began with a determination to take action. It began when the Boy Scouts thought that the founder Christian Heiden’s Eagle Scout proposal was too ambitious. Christian had proposed the construction of a hydroponic greenhouse for an agency operating in Haiti, but the costs and risks associated with the project were outside what the Boy Scouts thought were realistic. Undeterred, Christian completed his Eagle Scout project building a greenhouse for his high school and then set out to do what he had always wanted to do.

Working together with his family, a plan was put together and executed to begin to bring a sustainable food supply to the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Thanks to the willing participation and support of Many Hands for Haiti, Christian, Bill and Nate Heiden built a demonstration greenhouse in July of 2016 on the Many Hands compound in Pignon, Haiti. A new team of young people joined the effort and in 2017 marked the first installation of Levo’s hydroponic farming units, called Babylon systems. Levo expanded protocols and improved the systems, creating several varieties of systems for Haitian families.

Since the pandemic in 2020, Levo has continued to maintain its operation in Haiti, launching a new pilot in 2022 to provide 300 school children with hydroponics.

In the United States, the Levo team launched a CSA urban farming pilot to provide Hartford, CT growers with hydroponics and a market. Levo worked with a number of local churches and organizations to create a network of growers and buyers in Greater Hartford, pioneering a whole new approach to the local food system.

WH Rotary will be creating a pollinator garden on Levo's Garden Street property in the spring of 2024. It will be a great chance to get our hands dirty and help our world be a better place.