Uplift Produce is a controlled environment agriculture business growing a variety of lettuce and salad mixes to the retail stores. The business is a partnership between Sustainable Local Foods, Inc. (affiliate of Englewood CDC) and PlantLab, a Netherlands-based company with decades of experience in the sustainable, indoor growing space. Uplift Produce originally started as a social enterprise of Englewood CDC primarily looking to work with individuals re-entering the workforce for a variety of reasons. The original site at 201 S Rural Street was an experiment and ultimately didn’t have the leadership, technology, or space to keep up with the market.

By 2016, the company had stopped operations and went looking for someone in the business with the ability and technology to innovate that would be interested in working in Indianapolis. The search landed on PlantLab, Inc., from the Netherlands and a partnership was formed with their R+D and technology and the community connections and workforce development from Sustainable Local Foods/Englewood CDC.

The business has continued to grow since opening in 2020 and despite a number of hardships, has done well as a product on the shelves and is available in a number of states and for special delivery order. Uplift Produce has plans to double their growing capacity in 2022/2023 by expanding into the other 30,000 square feet of the Bunker Building.