BELOIT—Right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Beloit School District installed hydroponic gardens that the district’s director of food and nutrition Dawn Smith had learned about at a conference and thought would be a hit at the Beloit schools.
She was introduced to Fork Farms of Appleton, who manufacturers the gardens and supplied her with the equipment for the gardens. The hydroponic gardens rely on water and nutrients to grow food. During the pandemic, students were able to pick up meals from the schools that included lettuce from the hydroponic gardens.
The district currently has six gardens at Gaston, Merrill, Hackett, Todd and Converse elementary schools. The gardens currently grow lettuce, basil, parsley, dill, chives and cilantro. The plants are dried when school is not in session so they can be used again for the next school year’s program.
“They are a wonderful thing for the kids that are involved with them,” Smith said. “They will be harvesting the plants and watching them grow.”
The gardens have been moved around to many different classrooms in the district. Last year, a garden was in the special education classroom for a while until the lights required for the gardens became too bothersome for the students.
“But we had so many turnovers with our district teaching staff that we asked them (teachers) to volunteer if they wanted the gardens,” Smith said. “Gaston and Converse did a great job the whole year.”
Smith sees the gardens as an opportunity for students to know where their food is coming from. She adds that the district currently has different types of lettuce and arugula ready to go for the start of the school year and have been playing around with the idea of growing flowers in addition to the food plants grown in the hydroponic gardens.
Smith is currently waiting for the school year to start to speak with teachers and see who would like the gardens this year.
“It’s been a really good program and when they harvest it goes right back to the school lunch,” she said. “For the school, we may do tacos or a salad bar and say that the lettuce was made right here at the school.”
