Harvard Magazine feature on Ellie and VertiGrow

Harvard Magazine has written a spotlight on Ellie and the pilot study she led in Kibera this past summer for VertiGrow!

Elizabeth Gudrais Harvard '01 actually followed Ellie's work in Kenya for a few days this summer, and this is the result :)

http://harvardmagazine.com/extras/elizabeth-nowak-nairobi-kenya


~Tina

World Food Program + Youtube Partnership

Please check out World Food Program's new "a billion for a billion" program in partnership with YouTube to fight world hunger, a cause so near and dear to the VertiGrow team's heart.


$5 dollars nourishes a baby for a year.
$50 dollars provides a daily meal to a school child for one year.
$170 feeds a hungry adult for one year.

https://www.wfp.org/donate/1billion

~Tina

Medicine in Need

Ellie and I have been meeting with some senior staff at Medicine in Need, a Cambridge-based nonprofit that also grew out of the Idea Translation Lab at Harvard, to plan out the next prototyping and business plan stage of VertiGrow.

A second iteration of our preliminary prototype has been developed--built entirely by MEND's CEO Andrew! The second iteration features a new water storage compartment and improved water releasing control, marking a key step in our goal of creating built-in water conservation.

Next week we will be revamping our business model based on a lot of new and exciting ideas we've generated together with MEND, including the marketing and development of VertiGrow as a "hip, green" room decor for developed countries while maintaining its crucial functionality for food growth in developing countries. Stay tuned!

~Tina

Civil Eats

Do-it-yourself farming in urban areas!

http://civileats.com/2009/09/30/a-new-kind-of-garden/