Little Leaf Farms, a Devens operation growing baby greens hydroponically, has signed an agreement to supply lettuce and arugula to one of the state's largest public school districts.
Little Leaf Farms announced the deal with Springfield this week, adding the state's third-largest city to a list of customers already including more than 1,700 retail outlets throughout the Northeast, along with UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Williams College and the city of Chicopee. The facility, which calls itself one of the largest growers of hydroponic baby greens in North America, will begin supplying Springfield schools in 2019.
Little Leaf Farms, which grows all of its products in a five-acre greenhouse without use of any soil, will open a culinary and nutrition center in Springfield to help make meals for the school district's 26,000 students and 4,000 employees.