Prairie City Elementary students participate in Farm to School Program
By Logan Bagett on Friday, March 3rd, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
PRAIRIE CITY – Prairie City Elementary School’s Farm to School program generates a lot of talk—and food—in the Prairie City Community. Animals and vegetables are raised by the students right there at the school, and the students get to eat much of what is raised in the school cafeteria.
Program Coordinator Amanda Rockhill said they raise all kinds of different animals, including chickens, steers, rabbits and more. The students are raising four pigs this year—two for the school cafeteria, and two for the community.
Students in Preschool up through 6th Grade get to participate. Once per week, they’ll go outside with Miss Amanda and do the “chores” feeding and taking care of animals, and once per week they’re in the classroom learning.
Rockhill said right now they’re learning about hydroponics and aquaponics:
“We have two hydroponics systems that we have in classrooms, and the kids learn an alternative way of growing food, so they just grow it with water. One of them is in the 1st Grade classroom and they’re growing lettuce, currently.
Every classroom this year got an aquaponics system—so, growing things using fish. It’s a little fish tank, and on the top it has a tray that you put your seeds in and the water gets pumped from the fish up to the top. It feeds the plants and then it goes back down into the fish tank, so it’s a continual loop.”
Rockhill said at the moment, they’re growing peas using aquaponics.
Listen to the full Coffee Time episode with Amanda Rockhill and Board Member Megan Workman here:
