GROW (Growing Real Opportunities for Work) at Kazimour Farm & Orchard is making strides in Cedar Rapids by providing horticultural education that creates meaningful employment for local students, as well as individuals with disabilities, while addressing community food insecurity.
GROW offers year-round programs focused on growing, harvesting, and selling fresh produce and farm-made products. Recently, GROW's Core Crew members collaborated with students from Metro High School's STEAM Academy to construct a hydroponic growing system.
"Hydroponic means growing plants just in water, with no soil. It's amazing how quickly they grow and very vibrantly, as well. They grow in about four to six weeks, a very short growing period and you can continually harvest during that time," Vice President of GROW, Kory Kazimour said.
The students began by researching system options and selecting equipment before building the four-tier structure on site.
"Next steps are to finish building and then we will put in the water, the nutrients, and then we have pods that we will then place in," Kory explained. "Then we'll be kind of experimenting to begin with and see what grows best, see how quickly it grows."
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