Greenhouse at Cayuse Prairie offers multiple benefits

A flat of lettuce seedlings planted by third grade students at Cayuse Elementary played a special role Tuesday.

The seedlings were part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new greenhouse at Cayuse Prairie Elementary school.

Though the idea to have a greenhouse at the school had been floating around for a few years, fundraising for the project really began about a year ago when Cayuse Prairie began working with Food Corps. 

Food Corps is a branch of AmeriCorps that aims to encourage healthy eating and sustainability in schools.

Last year Food Corps service member Zoe Tucker, who serviced Lakeside, Somers, Bigfork and Cayuse Prairie, an area dubbed the North Shore Compact in Food Corps, began helping with fundraising to make the dream of a school greenhouse a reality for Cayuse Prairie.

By the end of the year the school had received a grant for a salad bar, which started a lunch program at the school. They installed and planted some garden beds, which provided food for the lunch program and salad bar.

Tucker has since moved on, and new north shore compact Food Corps member Whitney Pratt eagerly stepped in to help get the greenhouse up and running.

The greenhouse, which is 14 feet by 29 feet will serve multiple purposes. Half of it will be dedicated to experimental learning for classes. And the other half will grow food year round for the lunch program and be tended by students in the special education life skills program.

Pratt is excited to get students in the greenhouse and keep them learning about food and growing even in the colder months. 

“I’m a really big fan of experimental learning,” she said. “What better way to learn about a life cycle than watch it growing. And the chance to be around green things is really nice.”

Cayuse Prairie fundraised $30,000 for the project from grants, local businesses and individuals.

Community members have already put in volunteer hours to help get the greenhouse, which was made in Germany, assembled and ready to go. Past student Brandon Thornburg played a large role in building the greenhouse. Principal Amy Piazzola hopes to continue the collaboration with the community in the greenhouse. She said she’s already had community members call and offer their time.

“I’m really excited for it,” Piazzola said. “The great thing about this whole project is we can tie our whole community together.”

Though the reality of having a greenhouse at Cayuse Prairie was set in motion by Food Corps, special-education faculty member Debbie Kauffman hatched the idea.

“I suppose the inspiration came from the fact that I’d worked in a greenhouse,” she said. She and other faculty members had also visited other schools that had greenhouses and saw how working in them benefited high-needs students.

“We thought our kids could do that too,” she said. “They love to water, they love to feel the leaves.”

While every class will utilize the greenhouse the special-education students enrolled in the life skills program will have a particularly important role with the plants.

They will tend and grow the food that will be then be served in the school’s lunch program. They will also prepare that food for the salad bar. In the spring Piazzola said they hope to have life skills students sell plant starts from the greenhouse as a fundraiser.

Kauffman and Pratt said they have been asked if students preparing food that was also grown by students will comply with health code. The answer to that is yes.

Students will follow proper health code protocol when handling the food. Pratt also said that because it was grown on campus, there is no mystery about how it was produced and it’s healthier.

 “That’s something we’re really excited about,” Pratt said. “Our kids can do the whole process. This is safer and healthier. There are more nutrients in this food.”

Students are also more likely to try new foods, if they grew them, she said.

Piazzola, Pratt and Kauffman all agree that the greenhouse will help teach students work ethic, responsibility and where food comes from.

“It gives them the self satisfaction of ‘we grew this,’” Piazzola said. She said already the project is bigger than she ever imagined it would be. “The thing I’m most excited for is to see how it’s going to evolve.”