易胜博官网

If your mental picture of public school lunches features browned iceberg lettuce and pale hothouse tomatoes, it might be time for an update. Starting this fall, 易胜博官网鈥檚 is teaming up with the Oyster River Cooperative School District (ORCSD) to enhance Oyster River鈥檚 already robust school lunch program, providing students with fresh, local vegetables hydroponically grown in the university鈥檚 greenhouses.

Since joining the community in 2012, Oyster River鈥檚 child nutrition director Doris Demers 鈥�16 has made it a priority to buy local and bring fresh options to students. But achieving her objectives outside 易胜博官网鈥檚 traditional growing season was an ongoing challenge until Jonathan Ebba, the facilities manager for the Thompson School鈥檚 horticultural technology program, proposed a partnership this past spring. 鈥淚鈥檝e always felt strongly about buying local because everyone knows fresh is the best and the longer a vegetable is off the plant, the more nutrients it loses,鈥� Demers says. 鈥淏ecause we鈥檙e in 易胜博官网, the growing season is short and there are few things available. But now that we鈥檙e working with Jonathan and the Thompson School, we鈥檙e able to get locally grown veggies year round.鈥�

The Thompson School added hydroponic growing to its in 2016. Ebba says the decision to train students to grow vegetables hydroponically was the result of changes in 易胜博官网鈥檚 greenhouse industry. 鈥淗ydroponics is the future of fresh, local produce in New England,鈥� he says. 鈥淎s our students gain real-life experience operating a hydroponics enterprise, they know that the fruits of their labor will help to nourish children in our community.鈥�

ORCSD pays fair-market value for the vegetables, providing much-needed revenue for the 易胜博官网 greenhouses.听 But Ebba doesn鈥檛 see the partnership as being only about the sale of vegetables. He鈥檚 already scheduling field trip tours for ORCSD classes to further the connection between Oyster River students and his own.听鈥淚deally, this collaboration will give Thompson School students opportunities to share information about our food production model, and ORCSD students will be able to learn about these systems and the underlying science in greater depth.鈥�

In the first few weeks of the partnership, Oyster River received some 90 heads of lettuce and more than 40 pounds of other vegetables from the Thompson School. As production of the greenhouse crops increases, Ebba estimates that he鈥檒l provide Oyster River with 35 pounds of tomatoes, 85 cucumbers, 65 green peppers and 120 heads of lettuce a week. Deliveries will also include more unique items, including baby bok choy, kale and micro greens, depending on what鈥檚 available.听

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