A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Tuesday morning to mark the opening of the new Mahindra Agriscience Learning Center at Detroit’s Pingree Farms. The Center will serve as an on-site classroom where students will focus on agricultural and animal science, and will allow the farm to further expand both their Agriscience curriculum and student enrollment.
“The Mahindra Agriscience Learning Center will provide an excellent educational environment for students and community members to study and learn a wide range of food production techniques,” said Mahindra Automotive North America’s (MANA) CEO and President Rick Haas.
The Learning Center was established with the conviction that education is the key to future sustainability in Detroit, and beyond, Haas noted, “We were pleased to provide the grant funding that supports this program’s development and are humbled by Pingree Farms’ decision to name the Center after our company. My colleagues and I look forward to welcoming the new generation of well-trained growers that this program will create. They will undoubtedly enable the city of Detroit’s vibrant urban agriculture movement to continue to prosper.”
Jim Green, co-founder and chairperson of the Pingree Farms board of directors said, “This partnership with Mahindra is another step toward Pingree Farms’ mission to use agriculture to stimulate curiosity about the sciences and to teach responsibility and other life skills. The addition of the Mahindra Agriscience Learning Center represents a huge leap forward for us.”
The new learning center is yet another “fruit” born by the Mahindra’s Urban Agriculture Grant Program – an initiative launched by MANA in 2015 that has since awarded nearly a half-million dollars in cash and farm-equipment to 13 distinct non-profit organizations committed to sustainable agriculture operating throughout SE Michigan (11 in Detroit). Other accomplishments of Mahindra’s grant program include the distribution of over 200,000 seeds and seedlings to more than 1,600 Detroit gardens, the installation of software that enables city residents to purchase locally-grown produce with a state-issued EBT card, and the development of a prototype irrigation system for small gardens in SE Michigan.
It is sustainability initiatives like MANA’s grant program that led Fortune magazine to name the $21 billion Mahindra Group in its recent 2018 “Change the World List” – a ranking highlighting 25 businesses across the globe working to “help the planet and tackle social problems.”
