Issued

2021 - 2022

Type

Classroom Tools

Amount

$5,000

Applicant(s)

Keyghan Reed

Description

Farm-to-table is an extensive social movement in the culinary industry that focuses on

selecting and utilizing fresh, sustainable ingredients when developing menus and recipes.

With the recent developments and improvements in vertical hydroponic systems, many

restaurants and culinary schools are transitioning into having their own hydroponic gardens inhouse.

With these personal hydroponic gardens, culinary professionals are able to cultivate

and select high-quality ingredients for themselves, that they can then pick straight from the

source to utilize in their cooking. Never before has fresh produce been more accessible, cost

effective, and environmentally friendly. By giving Andover High School students the same

resources, students would be able to use their creativity and ingenuity to develop their own

menus and recipes, then cultivate and care for their own ingredients. Students would be able

to follow the production of their produce from the seed stage all the way to a finished dish that

they prepared. Incorporating hydroponic technology into culinary classes would also allow for

more discussions about agriculture, food sourcing, controlling food cost, selecting quality

ingredients, the farm-to-table movement, sustainable cooking, environmental consciousness,

and more. The integration of a vertical hydroponic garden in the culinary department at AHS

would allow for sustainable resources to be grown and utilized by the students for many years

to come. Hundreds of students would be impacted, and they would be able to truly experience

and appreciate the innovative culinary movement that is farm-to-table cooking.

By giving Andover High School students access to such an amazing resource, the students

will be able to explore avenues in the culinary world that they have not even considered up to

this point in their lives. They will be able to come up with their own recipes, menus, or even

restaurant concepts that they can then implement by growing and nurturing their own

ingredients. Students will be able to exercise their imagination and creativity to the fullest, and

then see the tangible results of the concepts they create. This exploration into the farm-totable

movement will set them up for success later in life, whether they are simply cooking at

home or working professionally as chefs. Adaptability and creativity are crucial life skills that

can be expanded upon and strengthened when students are given the ability to explore,

develop, and grow in this way.