The Green Room at the Highlands at Aero Park Apartments & Townhomes 55+ in Menomonee Falls, WI was buzzing with excitement on June 18 as residents gathered for their first-ever harvest celebration. Armed with salad bowls and smiles, residents harvested fresh lettuce, herbs, and peas they had grown themselves using Fork Farms Flex Farms and Flex Micro hydroponic growing systems before creating personalized salads to enjoy together.
The event demonstrated the power of growing food to cultivate wellness, engagement, and community connection.
The harvest featured romaine lettuce, Green Star lettuce, peas, basil, and microgreens that residents had helped plant, maintain, and harvest. For many participants, the experience was about more than enjoying fresh ingredients, it was about taking part in a meaningful activity that brought neighbors together around a shared purpose.
"One of the most rewarding aspects of this project is watching residents connect with one another through the growing process," said Josh Mahlik of Fork Farms. "The farms become gathering places where people learn, collaborate, and celebrate their successes together."
The Flex Farms and Flex Micro are housed in the community's Green Room, a dedicated space designed for residents to socialize, collaborate, and grow food year-round. An enthusiastic resident-led "Green Team" has taken ownership of maintaining the systems and helping fellow residents learn about hydroponic growing.
Research continues to demonstrate the value of meaningful engagement, lifelong learning, and social connection as important components of healthy aging. By participating in the fresh food growing process, residents have opportunities to stay active, learn new skills, engage their senses, and contribute to their community.
"At Highlands at Aero Park, our amenities are so much more than beautiful spaces—they are opportunities to bring people together. Creating places where residents feel inspired to step outside their apartments and townhomes, meet their neighbors, and build meaningful connections is at the heart of our community. The ability to grow fresh food year-round through our Green Room is truly special, and watching residents come together to plant, care for, and harvest their own produce has been an incredible experience. It’s a wonderful example of how shared activities can create friendships, encourage wellness, and make our community feel like home."
The Flex Farms and Flex Micro provide consistent access to fresh, hyper-local produce while creating opportunities for:
Residents are also using their Flex Micro to germinate seedlings that can later be transplanted into the community's outdoor raised-bed gardens, extending the gardening season and connecting indoor and outdoor growing experiences.
The Highlands at Aero Park installation demonstrates how senior living communities can integrate fresh food production into wellness programming. Together, the Flex Farms and Flex Micro can produce approximately 50 pounds of leafy greens each month, along with thousands of seedlings and pounds of microgreens annually.
The fresh produce can be enjoyed by residents in their homes, incorporated into culinary demonstrations and community events, shared at future harvest celebrations, and potentially donated to local charitable organizations.
The success of the first-harvest celebration attracted attention from local media, with both Fox 6 and Express News attending the event to interview residents and learn more about the program's impact.
The overwhelming participation from residents and the excitement surrounding the harvest highlight a growing trend in senior living which is creating opportunities that support wellness not only through nutrition, but through meaningful engagement and connection.
As the Highlands at Aero Park residents enjoyed the fruits, and veggies, of their labor, it was abundantly clear that these hydroponic farms are growing not only food, but community.