Hydroponic Venture Project
Annual Report
2025
Growing food, growing futures.
hydroponicventure.org · April 2026
hydroponicventure.org · April 2026
Dear friends, partners, and supporters,
When I started the Hydroponic Venture Project as a senior at Walter Payton in 2022, the goal was simple: put one indoor garden in one classroom and see what happened. Three years later, HVP is in 22 Chicago schools, has reached more than 3,000 students, and has put more than 2,000 pounds of fresh produce directly into the hands of the kids who grew it.
2025 was, by every measure, our biggest year to date. We raised more than $15,000, our largest annual total since founding. We were named a grantee of the Chicago Community Trust Young Leaders Fund. We were profiled by the IREM Foundation. We hosted our first community-wide harvest distribution alongside the Chicago Student Refugee Coalition and Montrose Food Mart, sending more than 100 bags of fresh produce home with families in West Town. And we welcomed our newest school partners, expanding HVP across more of the South and West Sides of Chicago.
None of that happened because of any one person. It happened because teachers cleared a corner of their classroom for a tower of greens. Because chefs showed up to teach kids how to cook with what they grew. Because funders bet on a student-led nonprofit when we were still finding our footing. And because every member of our 13-person leadership team treated this work like it mattered, because it does.
This report is for you. It documents what we built together in 2025, what it cost, and what we are committing to in 2026. Thank you for being part of this. The work is just getting started.
With gratitude,
Cumulative program outcomes through the end of 2025. Numbers are verified against internal install logs and partner reports.
Water savings are calculated against the water needed to produce an equivalent yield in soil-based farming. Every harvest is grown by students and either eaten in classroom workshops, taken home, or distributed to families through community partners.
HVP exists to provide a pathway for youth education and engagement by bringing indoor hydroponic growing systems to Chicago Public Schools and local communities. We believe every student deserves to know where their food comes from, and to see for themselves that they can grow it.
Our model is built on three repeatable steps, run at every partner school.
HVP identifies a Chicago school partner, installs a Rise Gardens three-tier vertical hydroponic system in a classroom, and provides one year of seeds, nutrients, and technical support. Every install runs on the $1,750 fund-a-school tier, which covers the system, the curriculum, and a full year of operating support.
Teachers receive a standards-aligned food-education curriculum covering plant science, nutrition, culinary fundamentals, and food-systems literacy. HVP staff co-deliver workshops alongside chefs and nutritionists, including chef-in-classroom sessions developed with our partners at Pilot Light.
Students grow, harvest, cook, and eat produce inside their own classroom. Every harvest feeds back into the school community through tasting sessions, family events, and donations to local food partners. The closing of that loop, from seed to plate to home, is the entire point.
HVP’s footprint is concentrated in Chicago Public Schools on the South and West Sides, with a growing presence across the city. By the end of 2025, the program reached 22 schools spanning elementary, middle, and high school, including partners in Back of the Yards, Kenwood, Armour Square, West Town, and Bridgeport.
Each new school is selected through teacher referrals, partner introductions, and direct outreach from school administrators who hear about HVP from peers. Schools are onboarded through a discovery call, a site visit, and a teacher training before any system arrives.
A directory of every HVP partner school, including neighborhood, install year, and photographs from each classroom, is available at hydroponicventure.org.
In 2025, HVP partnered with the Chicago Student Refugee Coalition (CSRC) to host a community harvest distribution at Talcott Elementary in West Town. The Evolved Network and Chef Sebastian White led a culinary demonstration in the classroom, walking students through the process of turning what they had grown into a meal they could share at home.
At the end of the day, Montrose Food Mart joined the team to distribute more than 100 bags of fresh produce to families in the surrounding neighborhood. For many of the kids running the table, it was the first time they had handed someone a bag of food they themselves had helped grow.
That is what HVP is built for. Not just the install, not just the curriculum, but the moment when a student realizes they have something to give back.
HVP works with nonprofit, corporate, and community partners across Chicago to deliver programming, fund installs, and expand reach. The organizations below made 2025 possible.
Selected coverage and recognition of HVP’s work across Chicago Public Schools and the national food-education community.
Kai Fogelson named inaugural Young Changemaker Honoree at the Pilot Light Chefs Feed Your Mind Gala, recognizing HVP’s work in food education across Chicago Public Schools.
Feature profile documenting HVP’s Drummond Elementary install funded by the Elaina’s Sustainability Grant: approximately 90 students in grades 4 to 6 produced 150 pounds of fresh produce while learning nutrition and food education.
HVP named among 16 grantee organizations selected by the Chicago Community Trust’s Young Leaders Fund, which awarded $100,000 in community-based grants.
HVP named among 10 organizations supported in Aetna Better Health of Illinois’s $235,000 urban-farming grant portfolio.
2025 was the largest fundraising year in HVP’s history. The organization raised more than $15,000 across foundation grants, corporate partnerships, and individual donors, exceeding every prior year since founding in 2022.
Funds were applied directly to school installs, classroom curriculum and workshops, system maintenance and operating costs across the existing 22-school network, and the launch of the redesigned hydroponicventure.org.
| Total raised in 2025 | More than $15,000, the largest annual total to date |
| Fund-a-school tier | $1,750 covers the system, one year of seeds and nutrients, curriculum, teacher training, and ongoing support |
| Funding mix | Foundation grants, corporate partnerships, and individual donors |
| Tax status | 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 93-1405024. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law |
A detailed financial statement is available on request to current and prospective funders. Email hydroponicventure@gmail.com to request the full breakdown.
In 2026, HVP is focused on three priorities.
We will continue adding new school partners across the South and West Sides while strengthening programming at the 22 existing partner schools. The goal is depth as much as breadth: more chef-led workshops, more family events, and more harvest-to-home distributions modeled on the 2025 Talcott event.
2025 proved that HVP can operate at a six-figure programming scale. 2026 is about converting that traction into multi-year institutional support, so the next 22 schools do not depend on a single funding cycle.
The new hydroponicventure.org is the foundation. From there, HVP will publish regular Field Notes dispatches, expand the press kit, and continue inviting funders, teachers, and families into the work in their own words.
Every dollar of support compounds. The fund-a-school tier is the cleanest way to translate generosity into outcomes for students.
| Fund a school, $1,750 | Underwrites a full classroom install: the system, one year of seeds and nutrients, curriculum, teacher training, and ongoing support. |
| Sustain a classroom, $500 | Covers one year of operating costs at an existing partner school: seeds, nutrients, and replacement components. |
| General support | Any amount supports HVP’s general operations, programming, and school expansion. |
| Partner with HVP | For corporate partners, foundations, and community organizations interested in co-programming or sponsorship. |
To every funder, partner, teacher, principal, chef, family, and student who built this year alongside us: thank you. HVP is a student-led organization, but it is held up by an enormous community of adults who chose to take a chance on what we were trying to do.
A specific thank you to our 13-person leadership team, who run this organization on top of full course loads and full lives. Extended bios live at hydroponicventure.org/team.
| Founder and President | Kai Fogelson |
| hydroponicventure@gmail.com | |
| Website | hydroponicventure.org |
| @hydroponicventureproject | |
| The Hydroponic Venture Project | |
| EIN | 93-1405024 |