Food On The Move Launches $7.5M 'The Food Home' Project

A group in Tulsa wants to feed more hungry people, and one way they want to do that is to grow their own food and get the community to help.

Once they get the rest of the donations, Food on the Move plans to use technology like hydroponics and aquaponics to help grow the food. People will also learn how to grow their own food.

"We're going to teach students right now, all the way up to adults, in North Tulsa and all over Oklahoma, how to be the ones that can run these systems, and how to start businesses to be the future growers that can help provide a sustainable business,” said Taylor Hanson, the founder of Food on the Move.

The plan has four parts, starting with growing the food, and eventually, selling and distributing it.

"It's really a food campus,” said Hanson. “It's a local food campus. Starting with growing things with an urban farm, and then ultimately over these coming years, we'll launch our food hub as well as our market, our grocery store model, and ultimately a community hub."

Food on the Move says this project will make Tulsans healthier.

"The lifespan of someone living in North Tulsa vs South Tulsa is 13 years,” said Kevin Harper, the President, and CEO of Food on the Move. “And that's all because of food access. Oklahoma spends $1.4 billion a year in health-related issues directly tied to how we eat because people don't have access to healthy, fresh, affordable produce."

Leaders hope people will get involved with this project, to help themselves and also their neighbors.

"We want to bring the public in because this is a community place,” said Harper. “We call it Food Home because a home is a place of safety, security, and education, and we want this to be a place people gather, and they learn, and they grow, and we build community."

They do not want anyone in Tulsa to go hungry.

"People deserve the right, they have the right, to eat healthy produce, and to eat healthily and to be healthy,” said Harper. “And this is just one more step to make sure that happens."

Food on the Move hopes to get this project kicked off in the new year. For more information on this program visit Food On The Move