High school sophomore Lavender Johnson studied a small green leaf during a break from class in her school day. It was sprouting from a hydroponic tower in the corner of her classroom in western Ohio.
“These are like little babies,” Johnson said. “You don't want to take them while they're babies. They're not gonna be good.”
The refrigerator-sized tower is lit up like a Christmas tree with white LED lights at its center, surrounded by a wall of leafy greens sprouting out of little holes. The lettuces’ roots dangle in water – not soil – that’s packed with nutrients.
After examining the cascade of green, Johnson grabbed a big bunch in the sweet spot.
“These are ready to be plucked. They’re like ‘Man, I've been here for so long, I'm tired of dealing with these kids.’ They're just trying to leave,” she said.
Johnson is one of around 40 students learning how to grow these indoor veggies as a part of their curriculum at Lima City School District.
But these water-powered plants won’t go in Johnson's salad or in other students’ lunches. Instead, they’ll go to the people served by the West Ohio Food Bank. The school is partnering with the local food bank to fight food insecurity in the region.
Collaboration is “key to trying to do anything to fight hunger and to try to address the barriers and the gaps,” said Tommie Harner, the food bank’s executive director.
A growing need
More than half of families surveyed by Ohio Association of Foodbanks said they had to choose between paying utilities or buying groceries over the course of a year, according to a recent report.
“Our numbers are just, we're doing more now than what we did at the height of COVID,” Harner said.
She said the food bank needs more donations, especially healthy options.
“We only can provide whatever we receive,” Harner said. “Sometimes, unfortunately, that doesn't always fit in with someone's lifestyle.”
Fresh produce can be difficult to distribute. West Ohio Food Bank has some partnerships with local farmers, but they largely have to rely on veggies donated from large retail markets.
Those donations are often nearing the end of their shelf life, said Lima City Schools agricultural educator Tim Garmon.
“The lettuce is wilting, the watermelons are getting mushy,” Garmon said. “People shouldn't have to eat this.”
'So much science'
So, the West Ohio Food Bank decided to try something fresh. It used a grant to supply the school district with five hydroponic towers.
In exchange, Lima high schoolers oversee the year-round harvest of lettuce and collard greens. Each plant is paired with a lesson, like how to test pH levels, measure oxygenation and quantify dissolved minerals in water.
“They’re great for teaching,” Garmon said. “There is so much science involved in hydroponics.”
It’s a win-win for the community and for Garmon’s students.
Other food banks have embraced collaborations with classrooms for the same reason. Mid-Ohio Food Collective hosts gardening lessons at their community farm. Dayton Foodbank brings students into their greenhouse on field trips.
Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, said those efforts make students a vital part of their local food system.
“We really believe in the value and importance of a strong local and regional food supply chain,” Novotny said. “Food security is not only about affordability and accessibility, but also the resiliency of affordable, sustainable food supply chains.”
Creating a ‘food hub’
So far, students have harvested around 12 pounds of greens.
While that’s far from being able to address all of the food banks' needs ,it’s just the start, said Justin Richardson, an environment and sustainability instructor at the nearby University of Findlay. He wants to recruit other schools to join and to create what he calls a “food hub.”
“We demonstrated how this could be done and hopefully this becomes a model for other school districts in the region to say, ‘Well, that wasn't that hard. I suppose we could do that also,’” Richardson said.
Other participating schools will have to figure out how to deal with the up-front cost of setting up their own hydroponic towers or gardens.
Lima City School District is also working to help the food bank grow more of their own food. Students are helping to build raised garden beds for the organization's new community garden, which will open this spring.
All of this potential growth excites sophomore Lavender Johnson.
“We get little baby plants and seeds, and then we get to grow it,” she said. “And we're giving it back to the community, so it's ‘everyone helping everyone,’ in a sense."
