Go to Go Green’s Vertical Gardens Teach Students The Values Of Healthy Eating

FLOYDS KNOBS, IN — A group of Southern Indiana elementary students are demonstrating what it means to eat and grow fruits and vegetables in a way that's benefiting their community members - and environment. With the guidance of Floyd Central High School student leaders Tori Floyd, Parker Romney and Annalise Zeinemann (pictured), the elementary students recently installed four vertical gardens as part of Good to Go Green. Floyd (right) is a student leader in the Good to Go Green initiative, part of Miles for Merry Miracles, a Southern Indiana-based nonprofit that provides gifts and food to thousands of needy families.

The Good to Go Green movement addresses the problems of Floyds Knobs students not getting consistent and nutritious meals, which can lead to obesity, according to Miles for Merry Miracles Director Teresa Herbert.

According to a release, more than 30 percent of Floyd County residents are obese. However, thanks to Good to Grow Green, students are learning a healthier and more efficient way to get the nutrients they need through vertical gardens.

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Each vertical garden is about six-feet tall and contains 28 pods – four pods to a level, seven levels stacked levels. The garden grows year-round, and can also produce dozens of types of fruits, vegetables and herbs, including mint, mustard greens, sage, sorrel, thyme, dill, broccoli, beans and Brussels sprouts, according to a release.

The gardens produce food 30 percent faster than traditional outdoor gardens, use 90 percent less land and water, and recycle 100 percent of nutrients and water, according to a release.

The want and need for growing healthy food inside schools was the result of a Miles for Merry Miracles food drive last year, when more than 3,400 of the 8,500 packs of donated food were sodium-packed Ramen noodles, according to a release.

Floyds Knobs followed after the program first launched in April 2017 to address these issues by producing healthy food in a classroom environment with a successful single vertical garden at Georgetown Elementary in New Albany. Children were able to bring food to their families at the end of the school year.

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The program expanded in August after Good to Go Green received a $2,000 grant as a finalist at The Allstate Foundation Good Starts Young Rally. Good to Go Green used those funds to purchase indoor lights and three vertical gardens for a trio of third-grade classes at New Albany’s Green Valley Elementary, which has the highest percentage of students who receive free or reduced meals of any school in New Albany-Floyd County School Corporation.

According to a release, those involved with the program hope to see it expand to all schools in Southern Indiana and across the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky.

More information: allstatefoundation.org.

(Images, video, information via Justin Breen)