Strong-Huttig School District is focusing on planting seeds and growing this year.
Not only planting seeds of knowledge like the district’s theme suggests, but planting real seeds to grow vegetables and herbs using tower gardens.
“We were looking into projects that the kids could do that had to do with growing things,” school improvement specialist Becky Bolding said.
Tower gardens are vertical growing systems that rely on aeroponics, or growing plants without using soil and only using water and nutrients.
Gardner-Strong Elementary, along with Strong Middle and High schools, will grow lettuce, basil, arugula, cucumbers and more. These are only a few of the 2,500 plants possible to grow in the towers. Bolding said the plants will be taken care of by the students and they have ownership of their own crop.
Bolding said the school contacted Julie Rainwater, who is a Juice Plus+ and Tower Garden representative, about the towers. Rainwater, who is also Bolding’s daughter, said her goal is to have towers throughout Union County.
Bolding said the Strong Huttig School District is the only one in Union County with six towers in their schools. Four are at the elementary school and two are currently at the middle school.
Coach Jason Porter at Strong, who also teaches health class to 10th graders and is over health and wellness at the elementary school, is helping organize the tower garden efforts. He said the towers were purchased using federal funding and spent about $7,200, which includes shipping and handling.
He said the elementary school wanted to get younger students interested in gardening to get them excited about growing their own food and being healthy.
Katie Sandifer, digital media and marketing manager for El Dorado School District, said there is one tower garden in the Yocum Elementary School library, one in a Pre-K classroom at Hugh Goodwin and one at Northwest Elementary. Yocum and Hugh Goodwin have had the towers for about three weeks or so.
Brooke Sneed, the librarian at Yocum, said she’s trying to teach her students life skills and where fruits and vegetables actually come from. She said the science teachers at Yocum are also interested in the towers and plan on writing grants over the summer to get one tower on each floor.
Parkers Chapel Elementary School principal Carrie Burson said in an email that her school received three towers Monday. One is for the pre-k room, one for the library and one in a science classroom.
Britany Thomas, who teaches gifted and talented k-12 students in the Smackover-Norphet School District, said she has submitted two grants so far to have a tower in the elementary and middle schools.
“I think a lot of it, many of these students don’t know where their fruits and vegetables come from,” Thomas said. “It’s a good way to have that background knowledge and to get them away from those misconceptions that their food comes from the grocery store.”
A Junction City School District employee said there are currently no tower gardens in its schools.