The greenhouse at Kilough Elementary School is in the midst of receiving a much-needed facelift with a new cover and improved beds for plants, thanks to a $2800 mini-grant and the hard work of several staff members and students. 

The school received the Farm to School Innovation Grant from a collaboration between Georgia Organics and the Georgia Department of Public Health Georgia Shape Program. According to Nutrition Director Scott Richardson, who helped to spearhead the greenhouse project and grant application, the funds will go to replace the greenhouse cover, replacing the old hydroponics system with a new one, reconditioning the grow beds, installing a new sprinkler system and helping to kickstart crops that will grow in the greenhouse beds. 

“We’re just thankful the grant was able to get us that, and some fertilizer, strawberries for our strawberry beds, some plants for the kids to learn from and a new and more functional hydroponic bed,” Richardson said. 

Richardson was instrumental in helping get the greenhouse, which has been in the school system but not in use for about a decade, up and running during last year’s school year. Since then, he said that revamping and upgrading the greenhouse has become more and more necessary in order to keep the project going. 

“This is kind of the second stage, so I’m really excited to see it coming together,” Richardson said. “I knew last year that there needed to be some rehab done; it was becoming more problematic as far as growing things in here. But it’s slowly getting rehabbed and I’m excited to see it.” 

He also plans to install a raised bed in the greenhouse to allow for a crop of sweet potatoes, which he hopes to plant with the students before school lets out for the summer so the students can then help dig their potatoes up to eat when they come back for the 2023-24 school year. 

“Once we build it up, this bed should yield roughly 75 pounds of sweet potatoes, so that should give enough sweet potatoes to feed everybody in this school once,” Richardson said. 

The greenhouse, which has already produced crops for use in the Kilough cafeteria, will now be able to produce more vegetable items while providing a learning space for elementary school students to learn about farming and cultivating plants. 

“Georgia Organics is proud to seed farm to school innovations in Georgia school districts with these mini-grants,” Georgia Organics Farm to School Director Kimberly Della Donna said in a press release. “We look forward to learning along with the awardees and sharing their progress widely. The access and equity-focused best practices developed through these projects will serve as models for farm to school programs in our state and nationwide.” 

On Thursday March 23, Dawson County High School teacher Keith Pankey and nine students from his Ag Mechanics class visited Kilough to help begin the process of pulling the old cover off of the greenhouse and getting it ready to install the new cover.

“This tarp is a special type of tarp that’s an interwoven tarp, so it has interwoven twine inside of it and then it’s pressed so that adds durability; it should last awhile and it’ll be a lot cleaner look,” Richardson said. “And it will not be as translucent, so it’ll help also with temperature control.” 

In the coming weeks, Pankey and his class plan to come back to install the new cover and to help build raised beds for the sweet potatoes Richardson plans to plant in the greenhouse.

Richardson added that having the greenhouse project revamped is a win for not just the school system, but for the students and teachers too. 

“It’s not just a greenhouse for crop production, it’s also a learning area,” Richardson said. “It’s nice to see this continuing; the greenhouse is great for the students, it’s a pride for Kilough and a pride for the county. It’s taking on more of a personality and folks in the community are seeing it and liking what’s coming out of it.”