Students are growing what they eat in San Jose as part of a nutrition program at Evergreen School District where students learn to farm produce, harvest it, and serve it for lunch. It's part of a nutrition program called Fork Farms that encourages healthy eating in students and gets them more interested in STEM learning.
Students at Quimby Oak Middle School are benefitting from an extension of that program with a new hydroponic system. Shan Gao, supervisor of the Child Nutrition Services at Evergreen School District, said she brought the program to the schools last year, and got a grant to expand equipment this year.
She said she calls the hydroponic farm "the salad machine." The hydroponic farm is already set up at more than a dozen other Evergreen District Schools, harvesting and serving the produce at lunch. At Quimby, the device is helping students grow up to 28 pounds of lettuce in one month, serving hundreds.
"In the machine there's a bunch of pipes that flow water up into the roots of the plant so it grows more naturally," said Tiko Pham, an eighth grader. The elective class is run by two science teachers, Jason Neiser and Cathy Doan but the actual activities are student-led, teachers said.
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