Vandal HARVEST cultivates jobs, inclusion and fresh food

Erik Luvaas believes the new greenhouse-based pilot program he helped launch will transform lives while showing local employers that hiring people with developmental disabilities is not only the right thing to do, but also good business.

Luvaas is the director of interdisciplinary training at the Center on Disabilities and Human Development (CDHD), Idaho’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, operated within the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences (EHHS).

In fall 2026, CDHD will start Vandal Hydroponics for Accessibility, Resources, Vocational Equity, Sustainability and Training (HARVEST), a program designed to produce fresh food and ornamental plants while demonstrating how businesses can profit by employing people with and without disabilities in an integrated workforce and paying all workers competitive wages. University of Idaho students will serve as peer coaches, helping Vandal HARVEST employees with disabilities develop plant propagation skills and take on increasingly advanced responsibilities.

Beyond workforce development, Vandal HARVEST will address a community need by producing high-quality, locally grown produce year-round.

“There’s a big push for competitive integrated employment,” said Luvaas, who is also a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Movement Sciences within EHHS.

Inspired by a documentary

Luvaas recalls the day in fall 2024 when two CDHD undergraduate trainees involved in disability-focused research, Isabella Cox and Kincaid Moberly, visited his office and the Vandal HARVEST concept was born.

The students showed Luvaas a trailer for the documentary “Hearts of Glass” on a laptop. The documentary tells the story of Vertical Harvest in Jackson, Wyoming, a successful for-profit vertical farming enterprise that employs people with and without disabilities.

Cox and Moberly had experience with hydroponic food production on a much smaller scale, having helped CDHD raise greens and herbs for its healthy cooking program using a makeshift hydroponic system.

The trailer made a strong impression, leading the three of them to imagine the possibilities of a larger, more impactful campus-based hydroponic project.

Cox and Moberly vowed to bring the film to campus and share its message with the community. Toward that goal, they organized a group of student volunteers who ultimately hosted a screening at Moscow’s Kenworthy Theater in April 2025. The film screening drew about 140 people and included a Zoom question-and-answer session with director Jennifer Tennican and two Vertical Harvest employees, including one with a disability.

“It’s been a tradition at the CDHD that when we have trainees who have ideas, we try to nurture them,” Luvaas said. “We’re preparing a future workforce to support people with disabilities.”

A diverse team

Luvaas invited two colleagues from outside of EHHS to the screening, hoping they would join his effort to establish a similar pilot program in Moscow.

He recruited Shahla “Sara” Mahdavi, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), for her expertise in vertical farming and greenhouse production. He also enlisted Bethany Martens, experiential learning program manager for the vice provost of academic initiatives. The three began meeting regularly and became principal investigators of Vandal HARVEST.

“Vandal HARVEST doesn’t just provide experiential learning opportunities in greenhouse management and hydroponic food production,” Martens said. “It also helps students learn to work alongside peers who think, move and experience the world differently than they do.”

Initially, Vandal HARVEST will provide part-time employment for two U of I students interested in horticulture and two 18- to 21-year-old Vandal QUEST participants with a disability. The Vandal Quality University Experiences to Support Transition (QUEST) program creates opportunities for students whose disabilities prevent them from meeting traditional admission requirements.

“People with a disability, when they go to work in the horticulture industry their salaries and the types of work they can have are limited,” Mahdavi said. “When they gain expertise, they can have a competitive opportunity to get employed.”

The program will also employ student interns from the Department of Plant Sciences and other academic units. Members of the U of I Hydroponics Club also plan to assist with Vandal HARVEST.

State-of-the-art facilities

Vandal HARVEST secured rent-free use of two long-vacant, 350-square-foot rooftop greenhouses on Gibb Hall from the Department of Biological Sciences, with the agreement that any improvements will remain in place.

The greenhouses have been upgraded for soilless production, using recirculating, nutrient-rich water and stackable vertical growing towers. The fully automated aeroponic system is highly efficient, enabling year-round production of a wide variety of crops within a relatively small footprint.

One greenhouse has already been renovated and is producing crops including lettuce, basil, bok choy, kale and arugula, along with ornamental plants such as petunias, begonias and nasturtiums. Organizers are testing production methods ahead of formal operations, which will start later this fall.

The greenhouse contains 10 towers, including some high-density towers capable of producing up to 132 small plants each and lower-density towers that can support 36 larger plants.

The technology eliminates soil-borne diseases and uses about 95% less water than conventional greenhouse systems.

“The exciting part will be the research aspect, where we can generate our own data and calculate our efficiency and the potential of the system,” Mahdavi said.

Mahdavi hopes to get research funding to support graduate students working on Vandal HARVEST-related thesis projects. She also envisions UI Extension using the facility for outreach programs focused on aeroponic food production, along with educational programming for 4-H and FFA events.

A fruitful concept

The Vandal HARVEST concept impressed U of I President C. Scott Green, who allocated funds for greenhouse renovations, equipment purchases and salaries for two horticulture student employees.

Green’s expectation is that the program will become self-sustaining. Organizers plan to conduct a market analysis to identify sales opportunities, including local restaurants and farmers’ markets.

A portion of the produce will also be donated to the Vandal Food Pantry to support students experiencing food insecurity. Program leaders plan to survey pantry users to identify the produce items most in demand.

Vandal Harvest also received about $7,000 from the Office of the Dean of Students and $4,000 from CDHD toward purchasing towers and $5,000 from the Stepping Stones Foundation to support wages of two students with disabilities who are interested in learning vertical farming techniques. The students with disabilities will work four hours per week for a year and earn the same wages as employees without disabilities.

Program organizers hope Vandal HARVEST will become a model for creating larger integrated-workforce enterprises that provide equitable wages and meaningful employment opportunities.

“We’re going to be providing experiential learning opportunities for students at the university, learning about this aeroponic vertical gardening system and the research and science behind that,” Luvaas said. “They’ll work with people with disabilities and develop this model that we can disseminate across the state and other places.”