Castine hydroponic farm donates 100 percent of its produce
The Good Table Foundation is giving to Mainers in need
The Good Table Foundation founder, Greg Nitzkowski, tending to his hydroponic self-contained growing system. Photo Courtesy of Good Table Foundation.
Sept. 8, 2026
By Annie Means
CASTINE—The Good Table Foundation, run by Greg Nitzkowski, produces fresh produce 365 days a year to distribute to local food-security-focused organizations. What makes those donations possible, and particularly unique, is that The Good Table Foundation operates a containerized hydroponic farm.
A containerized hydroponic farm refers to a self-contained growing system, normally built inside a repurposed shipping container. Plants can grow inside these shipping containers without dirt or sunlight. LED grow lights and nutrient-rich water stand in for sunlight and soil, enabling plants to photosynthesize year-round. In these tightly controlled environments, an individual can produce a high volume of food by arranging the plants vertically.
How Nitzkowski came to create this system in Castine stems from a confluence of events. He previously had a 40-year career as a lawyer and partner at a reputable law firm. It was during his time there that he learned about hydroponic growing. One of the firm’s main clients at the time was the largest hydroponic grower in the state of California.
That exposure, paired with his family’s background in the food world – his grandfather ran a restaurant in Huntington Beach, and both of Nitzkowski’s children work in the food industry – led him to consider how hydroponic farming might fit into his life and retirement.
And so, The Good Table Foundation was born.
The idea started as a partnership.
“Actually, creating the idea was a collaboration between me and my best friend’s daughter,” Nitzkowski said.
He hired her to help develop a strategy as the organization began to get off the ground. Originally, Nitzkowski wanted to headquarter the foundation in California, but the state proved too sprawling for a grassroots organization to gain traction with food distribution networks.
“We wanted to do something really hands-on that built a community around us,” Nitzkowski said.
That search for community led him back to Maine. Nitzkowski has family in Castine, where they’ve kept a family home for more than thirty years, and he moved there permanently a year ago.
The organization purchased its container farm from Freight Farms in 2022, then brought on help to get things up and running. Scott Rowley, the organization’s chief farmer, joined the team and became an invaluable partner. Over the following year, in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, The Good Table Foundation built out the water and technological infrastructure needed to operate the freight farm in Castine, and the growing season soon followed.
Their first client was the Ellsworth-based Loaves & Fishes, the largest food pantry in Hancock County. The following year, The Good Table Foundation began regular weekly produce distributions and took on a second client, the Caring Community Cupboard in Old Town, Maine. Now, in 2026, The Good Table Foundation is the primary provider of leafy greens and lettuce to both pantries.
The Good Table Foundation’s 2025 Progress Report announced its successes. Last year, in the organization’s first nine months of operation, it grew and delivered over 5,000 pounds of fresh produce.
A live tracker on the organization’s website calculates how many heads of lettuce and pounds of produce The Good Table Foundation has produced to date. The current count, as of the publishing of this article, reads 578 pounds and 11,670 heads of lettuce since the beginning of the calendar year.
As SNAP benefits decrease in the state – In July of 2025, the State of Maine Department of Human Health and Services said there will be benefit level reductions, elimination of SNAP-Ed Grant, non-citizen eligibility cuts, expanded work requirements, standard utility allowance changes and increased state cost-sharing in the 2026-27 calendar year – The Good Table Foundation’s work could become more significant in local Maine communities.
“We really need every nickel to get food in the mouths of families,” Nitzkowski said.
The Good Table Foundation hopes to expand its impact in the region. In 2025, it launched a capital campaign and raised 92 percent of its $200,000 goal.
“We’ve used the capital funds we received from grants to really improve the quality of our product,” Nitzkowski said.
The foundation will soon launch a 2026 capital campaign, through which they hope to use the funds to scale up their farms by multiples, as well as for legacy planning.
“From Loaves and Fishes data, there are 2,000 families that we directly touch,” Nitzkowski said.
Scaling up, however, is trickier than simply adding another freight farm.
“We would definitely do a second farm if the funding was there," Nitzkowski said.
The water and electricity capacity required to bring another farm online is so large, that it makes more sense to purchase and run four freight – or container – farms at once, rather than overpowering the Nitzkowski's infrastructure with just one more farm. That expansion too would enable fresh food distribution to nearly 8,000 families in the state.
When asked what the most rewarding part of starting The Good Table Foundation has been, Nitzkowski said, “Building community at multiple levels.”
Since founding the nonprofit, he’s built great relationships with his team of dedicated volunteers.
“We always make a point when we’re done with the work to converse and hang out,’ Nitzkowski said.
His volunteers recently hosted a “best bad dad joke” competition, he said.
Nitzkowski now also serves on the Loaves and Fishes Board of Directors.
“It infuses me with a sense of purpose,” he says. “I get to get up every day and do something that matters,” he said.
To learn more about The Good Table Foundation, visit their website.
