Kentwood — When it comes to local produce, it doesn’t get fresher than the lettuces, cilantro, arugula, basil, kale and other leafy greens growing in East Kentwood High School’s west wing cafeteria.
The vegetables and herbs thriving in a new hydroponic system are regularly harvested and replenished for salads, as ingredients in entrees and to put atop food in school meals.
As students went through the lunch line on a recent Tuesday, several garnished their walking tacos with lettuce and cilantro from bins marked “Try me! Grown in our own cafeteria!”
Sophomore Amarah Steel grabbed a salad made with leafy green lettuce from the salad bar.
“Since I can see it growing here, I know it’s a lot better. If I can see it growing right in front of me, I’m going to get it,” she said.
Dan Zehr, KPS director of child nutrition services, started the farm-to-lunchroom initiative as a pilot program in one of East Kentwood’s cafeterias and at Valleywood Middle School.
He was exploring the idea of bringing produce from local farms into the school, and connected with Bit-Farms, a Holland-based indoor farming company that specializes in hydroponic farming.
“The intent is engaging in urban farming and education around where your food comes from,” Zehr said. “Lettuce isn’t grown in a bag all chopped with a dressing packet in it.”
Students observe how food grows from a tiny plant to something they consume, and nutritional benefits are an end result, he said. A goal is to involve students in harvesting, planting and other educational lessons.
“This is, in some respects, maybe the first and only time students have been exposed to farming of any kind,” he said.
Enough to Share
Zehr said he hopes to have a bounty big enough from the west wing system to share with the east wing cafeteria and the East Kentwood Freshman Campus. The turnaround time from plant to harvest and to students’ plates is weeks, with the first cycle complete in three weeks.
Zehr also hopes to add more hydroponic systems to other Kentwood schools.
Haleigh Savage, child nutrition supervisor for the west wing cafeteria, said she’s had fun adding bok choy to fried rice, and basil to lasagna and pizza.
“Students see how much (the produce) has grown, how it gets implemented into dishes and it gives them ideas for stuff to make at home or bring to their parents,” Savage said. “It’s fresh and chemical-free, and that’s something important we want for them as well.”
Senior Sarhab Afghan eats a salad from the cafeteria every day.
“Salad is the best,” he said. “I eat a lot of it. This tastes delicious. I want my body to stay healthy all the time. I run and work out a lot and eat a lot of healthy food.”
‘The intent is engaging in urban farming and education around where your food comes from.’
— Dan Zehr, director of child nutrition services
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