For principals
A student community service farm for your school.
High school students will grow lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and other produce using vertical hydroponic towers. They will harvest their crops and donate to a local food bank, and then participate in distributing the fresh food to their neighbors.
Administered at your school by Sustainable Support Team, a 501(c)(3) public charity.
What it asks of your school
Your school provides
- Space for the vertical towers, power source for circulating pumps (and lights if applicable), access to water. Additionally, a lockable supply station, stored under your school's chemical policy.
- An adult coordinator, who can be a teacher, staff, parents, or a volunteer that your school approves. We can discuss during our first call.
- Building access at the times students take duties.
We provide
- The equipment.
- The training and the App.
- 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 donatedSST will track and record all food harvests and donations. At the end of the school year, we will provide the total cumulative donation for each semester and total for the year, which will quantify your school's impact.
- Service hoursThe SST App will have individual accounts that document each student's participation. We will determine an appropriate number of hours for successfully completing the training portion. At the end of the school year we will furnish the total Community Service hours contributed by your school to help combat hunger in your community.
- Public donation recordYour selected food pantry will be provided a public web page that lists each donation and date, and your school's name. They can provide a schedule for the actual distribution to the community, which is a fun family day.
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.