For principals

A student community service farm for your school, on one page.

High school students grow lettuce, kale, and herbs on towers at school, outside class time, and give what's fit to donate to a local food pantry. One adult coordinates, and we bring the training and the app.

Run at your school by Sustainable Support Team, a 501(c)(3) public charity.

What it asks of your school

Your school provides

One space for the towers and a lockable supply station, stored under your school's chemical policy.
An adult coordinator: one of your teachers or staff, or a volunteer your school approves.
Building access at the times students take duties.

We provide

The training and the app.
Help choosing a food pantry near your school.
A garden iPad for students without a phone.
A parent packet. Your school can add its own forms to it.

Your district signs off

A student data agreement, before any student joins.
Your IT office allows the app's web addresses and runs a short network check, using an IT pack we email.

Costs and who owns the towers: we'll go through them on our first call.

Numbers you can take to your board

Weight donatedWeighed and logged by the farm crew at every delivery to the food pantry.
Service hoursYour farm's total, from shifts each attested by your coordinator. Each student holds their own record. Training is listed separately and never counted as service. Your school, or a scholarship program, decides what the hours count toward.
Public donation recordYour food pantry gets a public page listing each donation (the date, the crop, the weight, and your school's name) and the running total. It never names a student, and it goes up only with the pantry's agreement and your school's.

Safety and student data

No class time is used. Students take duties before school, in a free period, at lunch, or after school.

After training in the app and at a real tower, students do daily tower care with no adult present. That includes adding plant food and a diluted pH solution the coordinator prepares. They wear the gloves and eye protection we supply for that step, and every supply station has an eyewash bottle. Students 15 and under don't add plant food or pH solution. Your coordinator checks every tower each week. Before a student's first duty, a parent or guardian signs our parent packet on paper. It describes every task, lets a parent say no to their student adding plant food or pH solution, and includes an emergency and medical form.

Your district's data office signs a student data agreement with us before any student joins. The app contains no analytics or advertising code from other companies. The app's privacy notice will list every company that handles student data for us, including the AI services. We'll publish it on this site before any student joins.

Start a Farm at your school

No farm is running yet. The first pilot farms are planned for January 2027, with a small number of schools. Tell us about yours, and we'll reply by email to set up a call.

Start a Farm Questions principals ask

Last updated October 2026.

Sustainable Gardens is a program of Sustainable Support Team, Inc. (SST). In this notice, "we" means SST.

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This notice covers this website only. The Sustainable Gardens app will have its own privacy notice, saying what the app keeps and who can see it. We'll publish it on this site before any student joins.

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