Ledyard — The Arc of New London County is looking to build upon the success of its farm stand on Colonel Ledyard Highway by acquiring additional land in town to develop a community supported agriculture program.

Representatives from the Land Use, Planning and Public Works committee and The Arc walked several sites last week along Hilltop Drive, Village Drive and Route 117.  The organization hopes to plant about an acre's worth of vegetables, according to Director of Development Penny Newbury.

The Arc of New London County provides housing, meals, job training and other services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD.

The aquaponics system had been in the works for five years as a way to provide cutting-edge job skills to those in the Arc's programs, Chief Executive Officer of the Arc Kathleen Stauffer said.

In July of last year, the Arc opened up a farm stand in Ledyard to sell the produce from the aquaponics system, and eventually expanded to include a 10,000-square-foot garden.

The Arc employs their clients through these "microbusinesses," which also include a cleaning business and culinary program and pays them minimum wage or better. While state law doesn't require them to do so when employing people with IDD, they chose to do so decades ago.

"It's a dignity issue," Stauffer said.

One of their recently revised strategic goals was to make sure they were providing the kinds of businesses and teaching the kinds of skills that their clients wanted, said Stauffer.

"We as an organization made a commitment to really support the people we serve and their employment goals," she said. "When people with IDD training in the aquaponics asked to create a farmstand and expand opportunities, we started writing grants for it."

The community supported agriculture idea came from those same members.

Newbury said Arc officials hope to employ double the staff they do currently with the additional expansion to community supported agriculture.

Community supported agriculture works by allowing nearby residents to purchase a "share" of the garden up front and be able to receive vegetables either weekly or at harvest.

They also hope to provide fresh healthy foods to the residents in the 18 homes they own across the county.

"The people who live in The Arc's suported homes are getting very excited about the fresh vegetables," Stauffer said.

The Arc hopes to have the community supported agriculture up and running next summer.

n.lynch@theday.com