On Monday, July 20, 2020, some one hundred of us were treated to a tour of the vertical hydroponic farm rooms, a box lunch, and speeches. A recurring theme was the idea that, having served one’s sentence in jail or prison, one should be welcomed back to full citizenship, not branded for life as an ex-con.
Because the governor’s COVID-19 emergency declaration was still in effect, everyone had their temperature taken. Everyone wore masks and exercised social distancing. To go on tour, more was required: head coverings, gloves, and booties — all to keep the growing herbs and greens safe from contamination, not just from COVID-19, but from whatever else might be on our hands, feet, and hair.
Second Chances Farm Closed on Friday, March 18, 2022
Dogged by legal and financial strife, Second Chances Farm shut its indoor Wilmington farm operation on Friday, March 18, 2022. The startup’s founder, Ajit George, in the letter to the News Journal, alluded to the pandemic’s economic impacts for the shutdown:
“Covid had many unforeseen and unfortunate consequences and for better or worse, we opened our doors on January 6, 2020, just a few weeks before COVID made its unwelcome appearance. We gave it all we had but it simply wasn’t enough at the end of the day to keep our doors open.”
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