Litchfield teachers use grant to grow an educational opportunity

The casual observer might have believed a new planter full of greenery had been added to the office at Litchfield High School.

Indeed, the tall white plastic structure was a planter, and earlier this month, it was overflowing with greenery. But more than a decorative piece of indoor gardening, the structure — and six others like it scattered around Litchfield schools and other locations — and the vibrant green plants that spill over its edges represent a learning opportunity for students and a collaborative education approach for teachers.

And that’s saying nothing about the nutritious bounty the planters will provide for Litchfield’s senior dining site and nearby child care center.

“At the moment, it’s a fairly new program,” Linda Heggedal-Gust, a family and consumer science teacher at LHS, said of the hydroponic planter towers. “I don’t know of any other school doing it. This lends itself well to teaching kids. And it’s an enhancement that we’re really excited to be able to bring to Litchfield.”

The idea grew from a grant opportunity from Launch Your Future Today, or LYFT, a rural career and technical education initiative. The Southwest West Central Service Cooperative program is funded through a statewide Rural Career and Technical Education Consortium Grant passed by the Minnesota Legislature.

LYFT’s Career Pathways Innovation program announced funding for teachers who could develop a curriculum focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) career exploration through hydroponics and family and consumer science.

Heggedal-Gust had applied for and received LYFT grants previously, which helped fund CPR training for child development students, and the purchase of new kitchen equipment in her classroom at LHS.

When she saw the LYFT grant focused on hydroponics come through this past summer, she was intrigued, since she’s used tabletop-sized hydroponic planters in her classroom in the past.

“I thought, gosh, what can I do that’s different, that’s unique, and hydroponics came to mind,” Heggedal-Gust said. “And I knew I needed a few good people.”

Julie Rick, a family and consumer science teacher and FCCLA advisor at Litchfield Middle School, was one of those she thought of right away. Mark Mavencamp, who teaches horticulture classes at LHS, was another.

“Julie was a natural,” Heggedal-Gust said. “She loves gardening. And because this is family and consumer science, this was automatic. And Mark, too, because he teaches horticulture, I thought that’s a perfect fit.”

But Heggedal-Gust didn’t stop with her fellow teachers, believing that a program that brought together the schools and community might stand a better chance of landing a grant.

“LYFT grants are all about collaboration, so, creating a team and then partnering with businesses,” Heggedal-Gust explained. “And so, well, how can we do that?”

Located at Zion Lutheran Church, just a couple blocks south of LHS on Gilman Avenue, the Lutheran Social Service’s senior dining and Meals on Wheels program seemed to Heggedal-Gust and Rick like a good partnering opportunity. They saw another possibility with the Kids of the Kingdom child care center, also located at the church.

“We went over and talked to them (Lutheran Social Service representatives) for a couple hours and figured out what we could do, what would be possible, and if all the regulations would be met, and what their needs were,” Heggedal-Gust said.

They learned the LSS senior dining program serves about 200 meals a day out of the Litchfield site, meals that could be enhanced by the salad greens and other potential vegetables that could be grown in the hydroponics system. The additional potential connection with Kids of the Kingdom was a bonus.

“And bringing in elderly and shut-ins and being able to serve them — that fits our value system pretty well,” Heggedal-Gust said. “And having kids be involved? It’s a whole community connection. And that’s what we wanted to create.”

In addition to that community connection, of course, there is the educational component, which Mavencamp sees as a great opportunity.

Mavencamp, who also teaches Spanish at LHS, earned an international agriculture minor and researched coffee plants and growing systems while studying in Costa Rica.

“It was very fascinating,” Mavencamp said of his own studies. “So, when we were able to do this, I was definitely on board.”

Students in his horticulture class will be tasked with checking the pH and nutrient levels of the water in each of the planters, to ensure optimal growing conditions, Mavencamp explained.

Meanwhile, fifth- through eighth-graders in Rick’s FACS classes learn about the basic food groups. They also study plants and germinate seeds in one unit.

“So this will just be an extension of that,” Rick said.

Heggedal-Gust said students in her culinary labs, which meet twice a week, will benefit, as working with the hydroponic gardens, harvesting the salad greens and other vegetables and fruits, and preparing them for use at the senior dining site will help them earn FCS Farm to Table and ServSafe certifications. In addition, the project will expose them to career opportunities in areas such as culinary, nutrition, food inspection, agribusiness, farming, health care and hospitality.

Food preparation and serving related occupations in central Minnesota are projected to have a 9.3% growth rate between 2016 and 2026, according to the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, and they rank fifth in the region for current demand. Additionally, supervisor and cook positions in the region’s food service industry rank among the top 12 of in-demand jobs, with agricultural and food science technician careers in the region expected to grow by 15%.

With that kind of documentation, Heggedal-Gust’s grant application received the maximum funding amount of $15,000, which was used to purchase seven hydroponic towers, along with seed pods for the first planting.

The first tower and seed pods arrived the Friday before Christmas break, and the three teachers worked to assemble the tower and fill it with water, then plant the 36 pods. Hydroponically grown plants generally grow to maturity in about half the time of those planted in soil, which meant a 25- to 30-day growing season for the salad greens, making them ready for harvest in the second week of January.

“The other thing that’s really nice about hydroponics is that, because you’re not using soil, you’re not introducing pathogens into it, different bacteria that might cause fungus,” Mavencamp said. “Because there’s no soil, you don’t have that risk, so you don’t have to apply pesticides or insecticides.”

The three teachers plan to make the program self-sustaining by harvesting seeds from the plants they grow, as well. Then Mavencamp’s students will work on preparing those seeds for future planting in the hydroponic towers.

While the first planting was primarily salad greens — chard, butter lettuce, arugula, and the like — there was a strawberry plant, as well as dill and chives.

So far, the growing — and learning — have gone well, the teachers said. And they look forward to ways to expand the use of and connection made by the hydroponics program.

“We had a lot of skeptics when they first saw it,” Heggedal-Gust said with a smile. “And you know, I was kind of worried. But when we can provide something that’s new, and unique, and gets the kids like, ‘Wow!’ and teachers are going ‘Wow!’ about it too, that’s really cool.”