The University of Evansville is partnering with a local startup to launch a new initiative designed to address food insecurity and workforce development.
Through a grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc., UE is purchasing a Pure Produce Container from Evansville-based Anu and Ekō Solutions in Fishers. The container is a vertical garden system housed in an up-cycled, climate-controlled shipping container.
“This will be the first container farm that’s been placed at a university, and it’s incredibly exciting, because this is something that I think has the perfect intersection of need and capability,” Anu co-founder and CEO Scott Massey told Inside INdiana Business. “I think having high nutrition accessible is a two-part movement. I think it’s about education…[and] doing it at a community focal point that gives close proximity access to others.”
The initiative, called We Grow Aces!, will give students hands-on learning opportunities and provide programs for local schools and community organizations, UE said. The goal is to teach about nutrition, agriculture and sustainability.
“We had some resources to be able to really try to do something impactful,” UE Vice President for Talent and Community Rob Shelby said. “I had known Scott from previous connections earlier…we started talking about the shipping container, and I was jazzed. I was like, ‘This is it.’ I love growing things. I love developing people, and this is one of those connections, I think, where both of those meet.”
UE student Neva Verbik, a biology major from Avon, originally proposed the idea for a rooftop garden during UE’s Changemaker Challenge for high school students. She began working with Massey during her time at UE, and the idea evolved after she connected with Massey.
The container farm can grow produce year-round. In addition to the food supply, university leaders are excited for the potential research opportunities.
“Neva and Scott were kind of our linchpins for keeping this going, and he guided her through just a really beautiful pivot to working with the shipping containers, which gets even our dining hall chef super excited,” said Erin Lewis, executive director for UE’s Center for Innovation and Change. “The potential is really big, and particularly since we are a university, Dr. Shelby can work with faculty counterparts in change labs through IRB approval and really study how can we increase vegetable consumption in a way that’s fun for young people.”
“We want people to be healthy. We want them to enjoy what it is that they’re learning about food and food production,” Shelby added. “The other thing that I’m very excited about is we really have an opportunity to educate folks on how to prepare food and how to kind of shift their palates, because sometimes vegetables aren’t exactly top of mind for some folks.”
The Pure Producer Container was first introduced through the launch of the partnership between Anu and Ekō Solutions last July. The containers feature a modified version of Anu’s smart garden appliance that utilizes rotary aeroponics technology to grow crops year-round without traditional farming challenges.
Anu says the container farm is capable of producing 3,920 plants per 40-day cycle. It will arrive at UE sometime during the second half of the year and be the second of its kind in the city of Evansville.
“We are a very mission driven company that wants to empower communities to sustainably grow produce. And I think there couldn’t be a better organization to be working with to actually have this impact brought out to a city that does need better access to nutritional access,” Massey said. “I believe this has the potential to truly become a precedent for national replication and beyond.”
Anu won Tech Innovation of the Year at the 2025 MIRA Awards last month.