Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) on Tuesday joined students of Kate Duncan Smith DAR School in Marshall County to celebrate National School Lunch Week.
DAR students showcased to the governor produce that is grown on campus by the students, who then enjoy the fruits of their agriculture department product in the school cafeteria.
Chris Hicks, DAR agriculture teacher, touched on the unique opportunity students were able to experience by way of state leadership playing witness to the work his students have partaken in.
“It’s really special to have Governor Ivey and the agriculture commissioner really support our ag program, and it’s a great experience for our FFA to have them come here,” Hicks told Yellowhammer News.
“We started growing hydroponic lettuce about two years ago, and kid of just as a ‘hey, let’s see if we can grow inside’ – it’s turned into now our school business,” he added. “Our students run it, they produce the lettuce, they harvest it and bring it into our lunchroom, our lunchroom workers prepare it and we feed it farm-to-table to our own students up here on the mountain.”
Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate (R-AL) told Yellowhammer News of the efforts the state undertook to incentivize schools to utilize locally, Alabama-grown food.
“It’s really a celebration of local food grown at local schools and that’s what’s happening in Alabama,” said Pate, going on to speak of the program his office spearheaded. “Some school systems like Guntersville really took advantage of it and really started growing and finding local foods… we’d go out and find it for them, it just had to be from Alabama.”
For Pate, it is rewarding seeing the program come to fruition after years of collaboration with state and local leadership.
“I feel like this is sort of the embodiment of what we tried to start three years ago with the local food school program and it’s nice to see it all happen,” he concluded.
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
