FRENCHTOWN – Frenchtown students with a green thumb will soon be able to cultivate crops and fish at their own school.
The Frenchtown School District and Freedom Gardens created a partnership to build a greenhouse at the elementary school in town.
The new greenhouse will provide around 1,800 pounds of fish protein in a year and 32,000 heads of lettuce. The system is aquaponic, meaning that each individual culture is a micro-ecosystem complete with fish and bacteria to help cultivate the crops themselves.
Freedom Garden founder Heath Carey says that it’s important to provide this resource to the students at Frenchtown.
"Hopefully, they’re going to be inspired to create things that don’t even exist yet at this point. That’s the goal common…tomorrow’s farmers, teach tomorrow’s farmers. We want to inspire thought-provoking creativity in the face of climate change to raise food," Carey said.
Carey added that they aim to have the greenhouse operational by September.
Freedom Gardens states on the website that, "Our mission is to enhance local food security by demonstrating sustainable food production methods and providing opportunities for hands-on learning. We strive to teach resilience to food scarcity through eco-conscious educational programs about growing, preserving and storing food."
