In the cafeteria at Ashwaubenon High School near Green Bay, Wis., beyond tater tots and fried chicken sandwiches, students have access to a salad bar filled with homegrown produce.
Vegetables were planted and harvested right in the hallway, where there was a soilless interior hydroponic garden it works with circulating water, special nutrients and LED lights.
“Fresh food can be easily grown in Wisconsin in the middle of winter,” said Kaitlin Taurianen, nutrition coordinator for the Ashwaubenon School District.
Taurianen says the indoor farm produces about 850 pounds of produce per month, which is enough to feed up to 2,000 students across the district.
“A lot of our kids aren't exposed to fresh food at home, just because it's financially difficult for families to buy those kinds of things,” Taurianen said.
The innovative system came from the imagination of Wisconsin native Alex Tyink. Trained as an opera singer, he took up New York City rooftop gardening between gigs. He then decided to use what he had learned to start a company called Fork Farms, with the goal of helping people grow their own food.
“Food already has to travel more and more to get from seed to plate. Our food system is failing us,” Tyink said.
That's why Tyink sees the 2,500-year-old technique as the water- and land-efficient agriculture of the future.
With nearly 1 in 8 households facing food insecurity, according to the USDA, Tyink says units like those made by his company can get fresh food faster.
Mark Geirach received grants to purchase two of the $5,000 devices for the food bank he runs near Milwaukee.
“As the cost of food continues to rise, it becomes more valuable than anything else,” Geirach said. “If you have the opportunity to have fresh produce on the table, versus something canned or processed or nothing at all, how much better is life for you? And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to make life better.”
In Milwaukee Public Schools, where officials say more than 80 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, 80 flex farms have sprung up.
“That's where it gets really exciting, because now you have a community of people who are doing this together and learning from each other,” Tyink said.
Roxana Saberi
