- Getting school lunches to be nutritious,
is always a challenge,
and this school has come up with the ultimate solution.
Come on.
This hydroponic farm,
at the Martin Luther King Educational Campus in Manhattan,
was built by the non-profit,
Teens for Food Justice.
Each week, students harvest over 150 pounds
of fresh produce.
Which gets served in the school's cafeteria.
Teens for Food Justice's goal
is to promote universal access
to affordable fresh food,
by training students to become
urban farmers in their schools.
I visited a farm during it's official launch event.
- What's your favorite thing about this program?
- Just the fact that we get to work so hands on,
and, I mean, we do a lot of learning,
but getting to actually harvest and plant and be
a whole part of this system,
is like, probably my best experience.
What was like the coolest thing you've grown so far?
My favorite here is the kale,
because we get to take a lot of things home.
I love to just bring it home,
and then make salads for the next day.
So, mine is kale.
Do you think that, stuff that you've learned,
working on this farm has impacted other things
you learn in school?
- It's definitely peaked my interest in agriculture.
And, I don't know,
when you think of agriculture,
you think of like a farmer,
but there's so much else that goes into it
that relates to other things.
- Can you show me how to harvest?
- Okay, so, your going to crab the cork, here,
pull it up.
You're gonna cut the roots here, like that,
and you're ready to harvest.
- Yeah, yum!
(laughing)
I love it!
Kathy Soll, founded Teens for Food Justice in 2010.
The program has opened four farms in New York City,
serving 14 schools.
And has plans for future farms
in Queens, New York,
Denver and Miami.
What was your inspiration for starting
Teens for Food Justice?
- Food insecurity was an issue
that students were really concerned about.
And we started to think,
what are the ways that we can empower young people
to address this problem?
You can start with what they eat everday at lunch.
A healthy lunch in the cafeteria
shouldn't be something that we
can't figure out how to do.
So, it just all came together in this program.
- How involved are the student's in the day to day
running of the farm?
- When the kids come into the farm,
they are actually doing the farming work.
They are harvesting and seeding.
They are transplanting.
They're checking the water, the water temperature,
and then they harvest all the food.
They walk it over to the cafeteria.
- Yeah, I know.
It's amazing, because this is the only school
that we have thus far, where the students can actually
sit in the cafeteria,
watch the food that they're eating grow,
and eat it at the same time.
- And how much food is this farm producing?
- It actually is replacing all of the lettuce
that the school would otherwise order
from it's supplier.
So, it's going on the salad bar,
and the kids are taking from the salad bar everyday.
- Okay, so, here's the salad bar,
where normally the greens would be,
but they told me that they have already
run out this week.
It's a Friday, so, there's none left.
But this is where it would be.
Right here, is the greenhouse.
What's your vision for this program in the future?
- Our goal is to bring this program
to as many schools and as many cities
and as many countries
that can make use of this kind of programing.
The reality is that, food insecurity is a global problem.
The food that we're eating is so highly processed,
and our agricultural system tilts towards mass production.
This is a solution to that problem.
It, also, is a solution to the problem
of a world where we have a growing population,
but dwindling resources.
So, we're using 10% of the water in this farm,
that you would need in conventional agriculture.
We're using all the vertical height.
So, you will see hydroponics and other forms
of alternative indoor agriculture explode
over the next 10 years.
So, we want to be able to train young people
to have good jobs in this sector.
And to really disrupt the food system.
- The students made some scrambled eggs
with the basil and spinach that they grew themselves.
So good and fresh!
(soft music)
Teens for Food Justice uses corporate partnerships
and private donations to build every farm.
If you'd like to donate,
you can visit teensforfoodjustice.org/donate.
If you like this video,
please share it,
and we'll see you next time.