Spring Branch ISD Featured News

It is kind of amazing that just 28 days ago, the second graders at Meadow Wood Elementary planted tiny lettuce seeds into fibrous pods. Each pod was placed on a rack that was inserted into a hydroponic growing chamber, created by Fork Farm, located in the corner of the cafeteria.

For the next four weeks after the planting, staff members of the School Nutrition Services (SNS) team in Spring Branch ISD came back to the school to lead the second-graders in lessons about where food comes from, what is needed for growth, the types of farms where food grows, parts of the plant, pollinators, and composting.

By the harvest day at the end of the month-long growing cycle, the pods in the racks were full of lush lettuces, each with long roots that had been in the nutrients and water inside the Flex Farm tank. No soil was needed!

For the harvest day lesson, Assistant Director of SNS Maggie Mae Kennedy discussed with the students the meanings of vocabulary words ripe and harvest. She also read them a story about the many types of food that come from harvests, as well as the need for cleanliness and storing the food properly.

Eating Their Efforts

When asked how likely it would be for them to try eating the lettuce they helped grow this month, one second-grader said, “We put effort into it and now we want to put that effort into our bodies.”

Each student got to remove a lettuce plant from the growing frame and add it to a harvest bin to be delivered to the cafeteria staff to prep for serving salads to the second graders during lunch period two days hence.

“It feels fresh,” said a second-grade boy while observing his harvested lettuce plant with its 10-inch roots.

SNS dietician Liz Lofgren LC polled the second graders about what they liked in their salads so she could build a menu for the Meadow Wood School Nutrition staff to follow when serving the harvested lettuce two days later. Salad toppings such as carrots, bell peppers, cucumber, onion, tomatoes, croutons, and even steak and chicken were mentioned by the students. When asked what kind of dressing they preferred, the majority voted with a show of hands for ranch, with Caesar and avocado-lime dressings coming in second and third.

Lofgren immediately began ordering the hoped-for ingredients from the SNS suppliers so everything would be ready for serving the “home-grown” salad to the Meadow Wood second-graders.

Even for Breakfast

Another student said she didn’t really like salad, but admitted that it would be worth trying what they had grown and harvested because, “Sometimes if you try a new thing, you find out you like it.” She said it was possible she might start eating salad every day, even for breakfast!!

As the students filed out of the cafeteria after harvesting the lettuce, they got high fives from Kennedy and Lofgren for helping to grow the produce. Some were heard singing, “Bye, bye lettuce! Bye, bye lettuce!”

The next stop for the hydroponic Flex Farm unit is Housman Elementary, where a new “crop” of second-graders will have the joy of growing a salad while learning how and where the food they eat originates!