Kennedy Community School Using Aeroponics to Grow More Than Knowledge

(KNSI) — Students in St. Joseph are using an aeroponic tower to grow more than knowledge.

Kids at Kennedy Community School are learning about the future of indoor farming and getting a healthy lunch too. It’s the only school in District 742 that has one.

Kindergarten Teacher Kelly Haeg is one of those in charge of the program and tells KNSI News she thinks having the tower is “just great because kids get to see where their food is coming from. And they get to see how it grows and how we might use it.”

She says kindergarten through 8th-grade kids take turns caring for the cherry tomatoes, kale, lettuce and spinach. When it’s time to harvest the plants, they go to the kitchen, where the veggies are turned into a salad. Haeg says there’s another advantage to growing greenery inside Minnesota: “from a winter standpoint, when you don’t have any greenery around, it’s beautiful. So not only are you getting your food, but you’re getting that color, especially in a long winter, like this year.”

The aeroponic grow tower doesn’t use soil. It pumps water up and down while touching the root systems of plants in little pods.

The tower was donated to the school six years ago by a grandparent. This is the first year the tower has been up since the pandemic.

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