Grow By
Growing
Investing
in the Future
Our Mission
StartUpRoots empowers students to develop their potential and challenges them to build a more equitable and sustainable future by providing a platform for growing food, ideas, and responsibility for the earth’s limited resources.
Our Story
Founded in 2015, startup roots’ first priority was to address the needs of hungry school children in one of Jerusalem’s poorest neighborhoods. While private funds were raised to provide what might be the students’ only meal of the day, the white rice, canned peas, and rolls with chocolate spread weren’t what the students needed. They not only needed more nutritious food, but the skills to enable them to provide for a better future. When the principle told us that graduates returned to their teachers for help with wedding expenses, we knew that we needed to transform handouts to hands-on education. We converted a dilapidated school yard into a 100square meter hydroponic farm. Growing 1500 vegetables a month, students learned the importance of nutrients for both the plants and themselves.



Word spread and soon other principles and teachers wanted to “green” their schools. As few skills have the space for a 100sq mt greenhouse, we needed to develop a farm that could literally fit anywhere. IN the hallway of a school that serves just over 100 students, StartUpRoots designed a vertical system that could grow 120 plants per meter, per month. Students became active learners, researching plant needs, applying the scientific method to growing sprouts, microgreens, leafy greens and herbs, documenting plant growth and reflecting on their own growth, through curriculum in photojournalism and enjoying the fruits of their labors as they learned to develop new products, such as the hydro-shake, a healthy drink they advertised to other students in the school, as part of our entrepreneurship curriculum.
We’ve developed our farm to a commercial level, enabling Yeshiva students in a 22sq meter 2000-year-old room in the old city, to devote just a few hours a week to produce hundreds of vegetables for sale to local residents. The vegetables are harvested to order and reach our customers within minutes of being harvested. Hydroponics uses 90% less water than traditional farming, eliminates the need for chemical pesticides, reduced waste, and saves precious land. Food grown locally, in a controlled environment reduces the carbon footprint and makes fresh vegetables that were previously seasonal available all year long. Yeshiva students use the farm for learning and teaching related subjects including Jewish traditions and social justice, health, environmentalism, and more.
We provide students with the tools to develop skills, knowledge, and a love of learning that will engage them to be responsible team players in a world that demands cooperation, consideration, and collaboration. Within our multidisciplinary curriculum, we invite students to find what they enjoy, develop what they are good at, appreciate the input of others, and focus on what our world needs. There is no greater pleasure than to watch students grow by growing!

Meet The Team
Educational Videos
Brought to you by Integral Hydroponics, this animated video series gives Hebrew instruction on the basics of hydroponic farming!

In this Edible Education video, through Chef Raw Raw, Chanah Auerbach teaches us how to prepare delicious microgreens!
Testimonials
Esther Ben Chaim, Principal (Minahelet)
Ohr Batya School
Raw Food Chef Chanah Auerbach
Ohr Batya School
Ohr Batya Agriculture Teacher
Morah Shulamit Explains the Impact of the Project on the Students
Ohr Batya Agriculture Teacher
Morah Shulamit Explains the life lessons learned from Hydroponic Farming
StartUpRoots in the Press
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