Imagine if there was a way to create dozens of new jobs, for hard-to-employ citizens with autism and related disabilities over the next 18 months and the solution to do that was right in front of you today? We believe with all our heart that we have a way to do that! We are addressing a multitude of social, economic and environmental issues, but most importantly, the problem looming in the hearts
and minds of all parents with disabled children… JOBS. Hundreds of people from across America believe that the partnership between LetUsConnect, Arthur & Friends and Family Resource Network is an exceptional example of how untapped potential in the private sector can make an important contribution to job creation. Many have literally begged us to reach out to potential funders to explain the scope of our work, the growing demand for what we do, and the opportunities it presents for job growth, food security, training for marginalized populations and a dozen of other critical issues we are facing nationally, and in fact globally. MISSION:
Our mission is to provide children and young adults on the autism spectrum with a vocational training program designed to promote the skills necessary for adulthood with an emphasis on economic self-sufficiency, community integration, and employment preparation via a hydroponic agribusiness. LetUsConnect Farm is an example of how a non-profit organization with a socially conscious business model can meet important community needs and the agricultural challenges of the next century. LetUsConnect Farm will be an innovative program of Parikh Foundation (501 (c)(3) non-profit foundation) DBA “LetUsConnect”, and will initially build hydroponic greenhouses on an 18-area parcel of land in Montgomery County, New Jersey. On this site it will grow year-round locally grown produce to sell to local restaurants, grocery stores and residents while providing employment opportunities for citizens with autism and related disabilities. (30’ X 96”). A hydroponic greenhouse of this size has a growing area that is equivalent to five acres of traditional soil-based farming. It will employ people with autism to grow hydroponically and sell highly sought-after produce year-round to the Princeton area restaurants, grocery stores and to the public. New Jersey’s limited four-month growing season can be overcome with the technical innovation of Controlled Environmental Agricultural (CEA) farming with a desirable product, market feasibility and smart business planning. Staffing can be achieved by utilizing a ready and underutilized workforce. The market is more than hungry for a consistent year-round supply of local product. Eager to meet that unmet market demand, LetUsConnect Farm hopes to start construction in the late spring of 2017 and will start operating in the late summer of 2018. Unlike other projects that have the considerable business entry barrier of high land costs, LetUsConnect Farm has innovated a fiscally responsible approach. LetUsConnect Farm will utilize the land donated by Nish Parikh, CEO of LetUsConnect, a non-profit, which is committed to empowering individuals with autism. This land allows us to use 3% of the forested area to build a greenhouse program. The requirement is 50’ X 100’ to accommodate a single training/production greenhouse of 30’X 96’. A greenhouse of this size can dramatically increase the amount of food that is able to be grown in a community garden and significantly increasing the amount of employees that are able to work. In other words, unusable land becomes a job-producing agricultural product factory – all of which is sustainable and profitable. LetUsConnect Farm will also serve as a platform to encourage a healthy diet and educate local citizens – both young and old – on growing produce in local areas and the importance of healthy eating while engaging the local community, visitors and schoolchildren in the region and at the same time, grow valuable produce to sell. Additionally, food producers of scale in the immediate area have an extraordinary demand from the large concentration of Princeton’s high-end and mid-range restaurants to meet year-round volume orders for fresh produce. Clearly, there is market share to be filled with a Princeton-based, disability-minded and literally a locally seeded company. LetUsConnect Farm will be a great success story for innovating job creation and agricultural product sales by employing a key but underserved sector of the area’s job base – those with developmental disabilities. With a 78% unemployment rate among New Jersey’s workforce of people with disabilities, which is 17.3% of the total population of the state, LetUsConnect Farm together with private sector organizations can create meaningful jobs in a proven profitable business of produce production in targeted communities. VISION:
LetUsConnect Farm will provide an environment for individuals with disabilities to thrive by offering guidance, support, and preparation for economic self-sufficiency. Many misinformed people discount the true potential that individuals with disabilities possess by generalizing them based on their “limitations”. LetUsConnect Farm will work with every adult learner on a personal level to identify their strengths and goals in order to bring them out of the confined world in which they are often forced to live in. Through these initiatives, LetUsConnect Farm will strive to foster a proud and vibrant community where individuals with disabilities will achieve community inclusion, personal growth, and job flexibility – all while enhancing the lives of others. Our business model touches upon many of the environmental, social, and employment issues facing the world today. Our environment-friendly method of hydroponic farming not only preserves nature’s most valuable resources, but also offers increased nutritional value, as well as fights the growing epidemic of obesity by promoting natural and healthy vegetable consumption. LetUsConnect Farm’s vocational training program will revolutionize the way many people think about agriculture. Utilizing hydroponics to provide individuals with disabilities the opportunity to become employed and gain a sense of dignity and respect amongst their peers puts an innovative spin on the meaning of social entrepreneurship in the 21st century.
