Southern Local Middle School students donated 36 heads of butterhead lettuce from the school’s hydroponics lab to the Salineville Community Center’s food pantry to feed residents for Thanksgiving. The seventh-graders grew the crop and prepared the produce, then donated it to the pantry prior to Thanksgiving break. Pictured are students Michael Smith and Aaliyah Crooms with some of the haul. (Submitted photo)

SALINEVILLE – Southern Local Middle School students have been growing lettuce in their hydroponics lab, and now the bounty they have reaped is helping to feed the community.

Seventh-grade science teacher Amanda Wrobleski said 36 heads of butterhead lettuce were donated to the Salineville Community Center Food Pantry on Nov. 14 for distribution that weekend. Wrobleski said students have generally used the produce they have grown for their own consumption but wanted to do something a little different this year.

“We wanted to do a fall planting and it would be ready around the middle of November. A student said it was the “Month of Giving,” so why not give it away to the Salineville Community Center,” she said. “The seventh-graders pulled the lettuce and put them into bags, then we donated it.”

An anonymous donor also provided salad dressing and croutons for the meal and Wrobleski took students to the center that Friday to deliver the items.

Wrobleski is entering the second year for her hydroponics program and about 45 students help tend to the small crop. It uses a soilless method of growing lettuce and seeds are planted in rockwool cubes made from heated basalt rock, then they are placed into the hydroponics system that feeds distilled water and liquid nutrients to help the plants grow. The students separate the rockwool and begin growing the plants in rows, while they monitor the process and regularly test the water’s pH level and clean the 30-gallon reservoir at the base every few weeks.

“I think they appreciate the process because it can be done without soil. This is an alternative way of growing, and it’s important to investigate alternative ways. I enjoy the fact that this happens every year and the kids enjoy it.”

She added that another planting was set for January and should be ready in time for spring.

“That planting we’ll harvest and eat for our ‘Lettuce for Lunch’ event, where we have a salad buffet for the students, faculty and staff. We always have an overabundance.”

Scott Hart, food pantry director, welcomed the contribution and said students were learning about science and how to be good civic stewards.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to promote learning and giving back,” Hart said, adding that the pantry generally helps 135 households and closer to 200 at Thanksgiving. “It had gone up with the SNAP situation [that was resolved], but we’re ready. The food pantry is always ready.”