Our vision for this project is to empower sustainability in our own community through education and community involvement. Our short term goal is to roll out a plan for 2015-2016 school year that involves parents, elementary students, high school students, staff, and community members of Sweetwater Elementary to establish a hydroponic greenhouse which will grow edible produce to be sold to its com
munity members to help sustain the cost of the greenhouse. High school students from Spruce Creek High school will collaborate with a team of community members to plan out the phases of this project. Parents and community members will sign up to receive produce on a weekly basis and students will deliver this produce in boxes at the end of the day. The five year goal will also be to have the produce be utilized in the school’s cafeteria to provide fresh healthy and sustainable food for students and provide local shelters with food. Our long term goal is create a legacy in our community that grows over time with high school students and community members involved all throughout the process to increase ownership and long-term support. Our goal would be that in five years, we have increased the amount of produce and have 200 participants, either parents, students, and community members involved through purchasing, volunteering, or maintaining this project. Our other goal would be that in 2 years, a STEM program could become a part of the special area much like music, art, and PE and provide training and opportunities for students to be involved in the greenhouse across all grade levels. The proposed garden plan would be a hydroponics greenhouse in which all edibles grown would be grown in a tightly controlled environment. Hydroponics uses very little water, as little as 1/20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food. Due to the climate control of the greenhouse and the hydroponic system, edible food could be created regardless of temperature, seasons, and the growers can carefully monitor the temperature, humidity, and pH levels constantly. This hydroponic system is currently and will continue to be powered by solar panels. The hydroponic system is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions without the use of soil. Their roots will be in contact with the continuous flow of nutrient rich solutions that constantly flows past the roots from a storage tank that has the potential to serve a multitude of plants. A hydroponic greenhouse will expose all plants to adequate supplies of water, oxygen, and nutrients which can be monitored from one water source and recycled so that there will not be any additional costs for water. The advantage of this system is that the greenhouse has the opportunity to produce higher yields of high quality produce without the costs of a water bill and the other energy is powered by solar panels. With the controlled-environment agriculture, it will provide maximum efficiency since the big idea is that anyone, anywhere in the world, could grow their own food.
