GROTON, Conn. – Groton Public Schools held a ribbon-cutting for Food Services’ newest addition to its Farm to School initiative this past Friday at Central Office: a shipping container revamped as a hydroponics system.
This new initiative will grow a variety of organic vegetables that will be used throughout Groton schools to help incorporate more locally grown, fresh vegetables into students’ diets. This is one part of Groton’s commitment to the Farm to School program, joining similar garden, greenhouse, and hydroponics programs at six schools throughout the Groton school district.
“These growing containers, this lettuce, will be used in some of the salads at the high school, they will be used at the elementary schools, and the middle school,” said Ernest Koschmieder, director of GPS Food Services. “It’s not enough to feed everyone initially, but it’s a start, and it’s year-round.”
Koschmieder made it clear that the underlying goal is to educate students on what they put in their bodies.
“I am trying to get all of our kids, from Kindergarten through 12th grade, to learn the benefits of healthy eating,” he said. “If I can show the little kids how to eat [well], I’m hoping that carries into middle school, and then it carries to the high school, [and then] maybe they’ll choose healthy eating habits when they graduate.”
The event was opened with several short remarks inside the Central Office building, including from Koschmieder, and Austin, among others. GPS was presented with a citation from CT state Senator, Heather Somers, and CT state Representative, Aundré Bumgardner, giving props to the program. The citation was delivered by Dan Gaiewski, Fitch High School graduate and Connecticut’s newest house representative following the 40th district’s special election on February 25.
“Programs like these connect local farmers into our school system and give them a guaranteed contract, so it helps our local economy when it comes to farmers and it provides fresh and healthy food to students in need,” Gaiewski said of the program. “It is vital to our local economy and our education system here and I am in full support of expanding these programs throughout the state of Connecticut.”
“Pertaining to the container farm, Levo International was part of installing the system, we […] converted the container into a hydroponic farm, and then we’ve been coming on a weekly basis to install and start up the system,” said Declan Wlochowski, an operations lead for Levo International. “[At Fitch High School in Groton], we are doing experiments on creating organic fertilizer, because right now the fertilizer we use […] is synthetic.”
Last year, the Groton Farm to School program supported 23 local farms and businesses, serving over 18,000 lbs. of local produce to students.
