Mobile hydroponic wagon brings the farm to Grant K-8 School

Grant (K-8) School students experienced first-hand how their January Harvest of the Month is grown when the farm came to school.

Using a mobile hydroponic wagon, Pierre Sleiman, Jr., owner and CEO of Go Green Agriculture, demonstrated how the organic Bloomsdale spinach grows hydroponically by having students pour water and nutrients into the tube where the spinach roots were suspended. The wagon will stay at Grant throughout January so the students can watch the spinach growing process.

 

"Students are able to learn that hydroponics is the art and science of growing plants without soil," said Ashley Cassat, San Diego Unified Farm to School Specialist. "Instead plant roots are suspended in nutrient-rich water, a system which uses up to 60-80 percent less water than conventional outdoor farms by recycling every drop of water that the plants don’t take up."

A family-owned, hydroponic farm in Encinitas, Go Green Agriculture grows a wide variety of organic leafy vegetables with distribution to Whole Foods, Jimbos, Sprouts, Ralphs and now cafeterias in the San Diego Unified School District.


Share this growing experience by watching this month’s Harvest of the Month video, featuring our spinach actually being grown in Encinitas. The video, produced by San Diego Unified’s Food Corps member Mary Tyranski, is one in a series that brings nutrition education into the classroom and connects students to their school’s salad bars. Watch video»


The Mobile Hydroponic Wagon was built by Pierre for the San Diego Unified Farm to School Program with funding from the Community Transformation Grant through the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency. Schools can take advantage of this educational tool or learn more by contacting Farm to School Specialist, Ashley Cassat at acassat@sandi.net or follow the program on its Facebook page.