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VISTA — A small Vista aquaponics farm run by a nonprofit group that works with homeless families has been tapped for a $1 million grant, allowing the farm to expand to quadruple its growing capacity.

North County Solutions for Change, which runs Solutions Farms, announced Tuesday that Alliance Healthcare Foundation had selected its aquaponics farm as the winner of its 2014 Innovative Initiative grant.

“We are thrilled for the opportunity and honored that Alliance would select our idea,” Solutions Director Chris Megison said.

The nonprofit Alliance Healthcare Foundation provides grants to nonprofit groups that address health care matters among the poor in San Diego and Imperial Counties.

“Alliance Healthcare Foundation was really excited about the innovative ideas that brought in social enterprise to expand not only the farm, but also the workforce development, the environmental impacts and its help to the target population of the homeless,” Alliance’s executive director Nancy Sasaki said.

The aquaponics farm puts once-homeless people to work, and also provides fresh produce for the Vista Unified School District and other clients.

The larger Solutions for Change program provides housing and support services about 135 families, including about 300 children. Some of the parents receiving Solutions services work at the farm, as part of the program’s emphasis on moving toward self-sufficiency.

Solutions Farms started in summer 2012 as a nearly 7,000-square-foot greenhouse operation. The $1 million grant will allow for a planned expansion to triple its size by early 2015. Efficiency improvements will mean the output will increase fourfold, Megison said.

By next year, Solutions Farms will provide more than 1.6 million servings of organic greens annually. Most of the food will go to local schools.

Aquaponics combines aquaculture — in this case, raising tilapia, a freshwater fish — with hydroponics — growing without soil.

The gist is that the fish water — with its nutrient-rich fish excrement — is pumped out of the fish tanks and supplied to the plants. The plants take what they need from the water, and in doing so, cleanse it. Then it’s pumped back into the fish tanks. The cycle repeats again and again.