In the remote Southeast Alaska village of Angoon, high school students are learning how to grow their own produce using hydroponic technology. The classroom facility gives students a hands-on learning experience and increases food sovereignty in a community of about 300 people, where fresh vegetables are hard to come by. High schoolers have spent the past few years building a mini-farm inside this ordinary classroom. And, they say the food they grow here is better than anything else they can get in town.
Angoon is on Admiralty Island, where it rains constantly and sunshine is a rarity in the winter. Most of the produce in the village is flown in or brought in on a barge. A lot of residents rely on traditional harvesting to fill their freezers. But, climate change is disrupting land and water resources, making some subsistence foods less abundant or harder to find.
This facility is a way for the students, and community, to have more control over the food that they eat. Things that are usually hard to grow in Southeast Alaska, like peppers, tomatoes, basil and lettuce are abundant in the classroom. That's because of the hydroponics facility's technology, which allows vegetables to grow year-round. There are boxes and pods where the plants suck up nutrient-rich water and grow under LED lamps.
The facility was paid for using a federal education grant. Its purpose is to teach students the basics of cultivation and food sustainability. The result of those lessons is the fresh produce they share with their community."It's not just the hydroponics as a means of getting the food, but also it's giving the kids a feeling of empowerment," said Frank Coenraad, a counselor at the school who helped develop the program three years ago.
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