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." "This is, in some respects, maybe the first and only time students have been exposed to farming of any kind," he said.
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