HODGENVILLE, Ky. – October was Farm to School Month in the Bluegrass state. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) encouraged school cafeterias across the Commonwealth to increase their use of local farm commodities in the food they served.

In most schools across Kentucky, students are provided with a variety of fruits and vegetables from nearby farms and taught where their food comes from. But a few schools in the state are growing their food from seed, which is eventually making its way into the school cafeteria.

Fifty miles south of Louisville in Hodgenville, students at LaRue County High School heard the call for using local foods and they didn’t have far to go to get fresh lettuce in their cafeteria.

The students grow lettuce year-round behind their school in a 56-foot by 72-foot student-run greenhouse.

“You won’t see lettuce any fresher,” LaRue agriculture teacher Chris Thomas said.

 The students raised iceberg, romaine and six other varieties of hydroponic lettuce.

“All the lettuce we raise goes to the cafeteria,” Thomas said. “Students can see a produce from seed to eating it. They see where their food comes from. We talk about local food a lot, now they can see it.”

The greenhouse also houses a large fish tank where ag students are raising tilapia, some of which have grown to two pounds.

Student interest pushed the school to build the greenhouse. The high school secured a $60,000 grant from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund to purchase the hydroponic equipment and fish tank.

“This is an expensive piece of infrastructure,” Thomas said. “Our goal is to provide our entire school district with lettuce each day.”

The school bought $1,100 worth of lettuce from the greenhouse in four months from February to May. It takes lettuce 35-45 days of growing hydroponically before it’s mature enough to harvest.

“We’ve got a premium product, but we’re not getting a premium price right now,” Thomas said. “The $1,100 covered our expenses, but it doesn’t pay for water, heating and electricity, so the school takes care of that.”

The ag students at LaRue are planning to grow rice inside the greenhouse. In the past, they attempted to grow strawberries, finding them difficult to grow. They attempted to raise catfish in the tank before settling on tilapia.

“Even if a student is not interested in ag as a career, it teaches responsibility,” Thomas said. “It also teaches hard work and problem solving. Those skills are transferable.”

Thomas has visions of raising food animals. The school already has a few egg-laying chickens and just purchased two piglets.

“I’d like to get into meats like pork and chicken,” Thomas said.

Other schools are dealing in fresh food, too. FFA students at Carter G. Woodson Academy in Lexington, Ky., raise and sell produce to the school cafeteria, as well as distribute to local restaurants, non-profits and other CSAs to provide locally produced lettuce. Scholars in the Greenhouse Technology course are put into small production teams to handle all steps of production from seed to harvest.

Many students at the lower grade levels participated in the Kentucky Farm to School Challenge. In this event, Kentucky schools and/or classrooms participated in three activities to Taste, Learn and Grow throughout October.

Classrooms that participated received a challenge kit with suggested activities, printable poster and resources. This is the fourth year for the Farm to School Challenge. Last year, the Challenge reached 7,852 students in public and private schools and homeschools.

“Our hard-working Kentucky Department of Agriculture staff recruited 907 schools in 77 school districts to participate in our Farm To School program,” Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles said. “Some school districts are the largest food procurers in each county, so this program provides many benefits to Kentucky farmers and students alike.”

The Kentucky Farm to School Program got started eight years ago.

“Our Farm to School program feeds not only the bellies of our students, but also their minds,” Quarles said. “The KDA is a proud supporter of 77 school gardens across the state. When most folks don’t know the difference between a soybean and a green bean, the hands-on agricultural experience provided by a school garden is more important than ever before. Farm to School is a win-win for our students and for our farmers.”