Grant expands school agriculture program
While so many teachers were excited to return to the classroom in person last month, Trevor Horn couldn’t wait to get his students outside.
Horn, Reynoldsburg High School’s agriculture and food science teacher, was doing just that when his students recently braved 90-degree weather to pick handfuls of red peppers and tiny tomatoes from the school garden.
The garden and a greenhouse were created three years ago on space that used to be a tennis court. With the help of Horn’s students, a bounty of fruits and vegetables have taken root: three kinds of tomatoes, ruby red potatoes,
three varieties of carrots, eight apple trees and more.
“I am looking forward to getting to work in the garden and really diving into the science of food,” 15-year-old Ashley Ruark said in an email after working in the garden recently. “It’s really interesting and important to know what foods we are consuming.”
The sophomore, who has a garden in her backyard, is taking two of Horn’s classes, which are part of the agriculture and biotechnology pathway at the high school’s Livingston Campus.
Soon, thanks to a substantial federal grant the district received this summer, Horn will be able to expand his teachings even more. The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Reynoldsburg City Schools a $91,180 Farm-to-school Grant to diversify the pathway as well as grow and distribute food at its urban farm.
The agency gave out a total of $12 million to 176 grantees across the country. Other organizations in the area that received awards were education nonprofit The PAST Foundation ($98,606) and the nonprofit Saint Stephens Community House ($96,460), both in Columbus.
According to a news release, the grant awarded to Reynoldsburg City Schools will be used primarily to increase capacity to harvest and process food. Some initiatives to reach that goal include installing new water lines, electricity lines and a solar panel controller to support the irrigation systems; adding a honey bee habitat; and updating a classroom kitchen with new ovens, food preservation tools and modern food preparation appliances.
In addition, a paid internship program will be created for high schoolers, and the agriculture pathway will be expanded to grades 5 through 9. Horn said plans for the internship are still in development, but he hopes to have the interns assist with workshops on farming and agriculture for the school community and eventually the Reynoldsburg community.
“Growing food is a lot of work,” Horn said. “Hats off to farmers because a lot of us in the general public don’t have that relationship and the efforts that get put in to produce the food.
“So we emphasize good, clean, fair food for everybody,” he said. “We really talk about what we can do to help support our local economy as much as possible, so they (students) get that aspect of it and get introduced to it.”
Building a relationship with food
Horn’s background is as a chef. He worked at Walt Disney World’s Epcot
theme park in Florida before deciding to switch career paths six years ago after the birth of his son, Colton.
Last month, he kicked off his fourth year of teaching at Reynoldsburg, which consists of four classes that cover everything from the science and technology of food to the slow-food movement. There’s also an agriculture systems capstone internship for seniors. In total, the 37-year-old teaches about 150 students.
“It’s an opportunity to get some connections with food and messing a little bit with the biotech aspect of it — GMOS (genetically modified organisms) and understanding how their food’s grown,” he said. “A direct connection of the farm-to-table approach has been our goal.”
Horn said many of the teens in his classes are not interested in growing their own food — at least not at first.
That was the case for 17-year-old Wesley Osei. But when he took Horn’s “Slow Food and Greenhouse” class last year, he enjoyed learning how to grow tomatoes and peppers. The senior said he is looking forward to learning even more about plants this year.
Showing students where their food comes from led to the creation of the tennis court greenhouse and garden in 2018 at the Livingston Campus, as well as a garden at the high school’s Summit Campus. In addition, Horn built raised beds in the three courtyards on the Livingston Campus to plant even more food.
“So there’s these two tennis courts sitting there, a fenced in area we weren’t using,” Horn said. “And a couple of us got the idea that we should put this greenhouse on there and see where it grows. It literally keeps expanding and we keep getting more and more involvement from students.”
The community has shown support as well, with members of the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and local Boy Scouts troops volunteering at the greenhouse.
Produce from the urban garden goes to several places: the high school cafeteria, the Mid-ohio Food Collective, South Side Roots and the Mid-ohio Market at HEART (Helping Eastside And Reynoldsburg Thrive).
In 2019, Horn created the Reynoldsburg chapter of Slow Food Columbus, a division of the international organization dedicated to counteracting the fast food industry and helping people get back to growing and preparing their own food.
The branch became the first high school chapter in the country and was offered as an elective class, Horn said.
“I could be working in kitchens again, probably getting a little bit more in financial support for that effort,” he said. “But I think this is more important, and I get paid now in different ways. It’s incredibly humbling to see Mid-ohio (Food Collective) and their efforts, and to be a part of that ... really it’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.” mwalker@dispatch.com @micah_walker701