Youngstown City Schools receive $10,000 grant for portable farms
YOUNGSTOWN - Youngstown City School Districts' food service department received a $10,000 grant to buy two portable farms.
The grant, provided by the William Swanston Charitable Fund, will allow the district to produce more lettuce by purchasing two additional Fork Farms Flex Farms.
Each unit costs $4,000, takes up less than 10 square feet and uses indoor vertical hydroponic technology to grow more than 394 pounds of produce every year.
The school currently has one farm that produces nearly 25 pounds of lettuce every four weeks, but Food Service Director Tascin Brooks said over 300 pounds of lettuce is served by the food service department weekly.
"The district sincerely thanks the William Swanston Charitable Fund and the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley for their generosity," said Brooks. "We are so excited to implement the vertical lettuce growing hydroponic farms in three elementary schools and have our scholars be involved in the growing process every step."
The food service department has teamed up with the city schools Y-STEAM program so scholars will be actively involved with the produce from seed until harvest.
