COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Making every acre count, the Mid-Ohio Farm is adding a new location in Columbus, focusing on the long-term results of keeping food on community members’ tables.

Just beyond the TV studios here at NBC4 is something we are very proud of, the Mid-Ohio Farm at NBC4. The farm is a space where we can grow food and help our neighbors do the same, and now there’s a much bigger urban farm being prepped for growth right off West Broad Street.

With views of downtown, nestled in the Hilltop, this seven-acre plot of land will eventually help to change the face of urban farming.

“A site like this, we could grow one method and grow massive amounts of food and be able to put that into the system, and that certainly is a goal to be able to do as much as we can,” said Nick Davis, Chief Platform Officer of Mid-Ohio Food Collective. ”But the varying types of growing, that’s what’s really important to us.

“So, we may pick up a method that showcases the best way to grow in your garage, which may not be the best way for a local urban farmer to grow because they’re doing more high-yield growing. This is really about varied types of growing that we can showcase. It’s really a learning center at its core.

“What are new growing methods? What are ways that we can showcase ways to do food production in a more efficient way? Whether you are growing in your basement or your garage or even, an urban farmer community garden, here in the region. With new things that are high value, high yield, less weeding, better water utilization, sustainability. We’re going to showcase all of that here at this location, as well as grow and give away a lot of food.”

The goal is, in part, to look beyond emergency food relief.

“We’re also taking a look towards the long-term,” said Davis. “And we have to say to ourselves that the best way for us to help our community thrive past hunger is to start to teach people better and do sustainable ways of growing. So, they can ultimately, in some cases, feed themselves where it’s possible.

“It’s all becoming one cycle for us where we could show where the food is grown and where it comes from and ultimately put it back in the community.”

The Hilltop Miss Ohio Food Collective Farm is slated to be open this December.