From Rooftop Garden to Deep Space: Inside UAH’s Spread Life Festival

At the top of the Shelby Center on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus, a greenhouse hums with activity — fans whirring, sunlight filtering through glass, and rows of plants stretching toward the ceiling.

It’s a place where research and community meet. And on April 18th, it becomes the center of the Spread Life Festival — a free, family-friendly gathering focused on plants, wellness, and connection. The event will feature local vendors, cooking demonstrations, greenhouse tours, and hands-on activities designed to get people thinking about where their food comes from and how it supports their health.

But the work happening inside this greenhouse isn’t just grounded in North Alabama. Researchers here are also contributing to NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table — a global effort to imagine how astronauts might grow and sustain food on long missions to the Moon and Mars.

Festival organizers say that balance — between local impact and global innovation — is part of what makes the event unique. It’s about sharing knowledge, building community, and exploring how something as simple as a plant can connect people.

More information is available HERE