Food Ladder’s School Greenhouse Systems are specifically designed to be fully owned and run by the chosen school, with support from the Food Ladder team. Schools are carefully selected, with a key focus on supporting regional, rural and remote schools, schools with a low Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) value, and schools with a high number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Our School System Solution
One of our solutions for combating food security and poor nutrition are our range of 20m2 School System greenhouses. These focus on educating up to 300 to 400 students per year about growing and using fresh, local and nutritious produce. Features include:
- Structurally certified greenhouse with 10mm polycarbonate cladding
- Internal Hydroponic Growing System
- Temperature Controlled Evaporative Cooler
- Internal shade screen
- Louvres & vents
- Ancillary equipment including pH probes, growing media, nutrients and conductivity probes
- Solar powered (Optional)
- Cyclone rated (Optional)
The greenhouse and hydroponic growing system is perfect for 8 to 10 week terms as it takes about 6 weeks from sowing seeds to harvest. The Food Ladder system can produce up to 1000- 1500 plants per year – A selection of healthy leafy greens, herbs or seedlings.
Educational Outcomes:
- Linked to STEM Curriculum
- Food Systems programs
- Health & Nutrition education
- Paddock to Plate
- Sustainability education
- Pre-vocational and Vocational Training Programs
- Food Ladder Online Platform resources
- Social & emotional wellbeing
- Increased learning from disengaged students, students with learning and behavioural issues.
As Food Ladder will fund a portion or all of the infrastructure and provide a supervisor/ horticultural expert to supervise the build, we ask for the school to provide the following:
- Safe private accommodation with cooking facilities for the Food Ladder representative during the build, commissioning and training associated with the Greenhouse (~3 weeks)
- A licensed electrician to install the power to the greenhouse and install two of double general purpose outlets (240V/10Amp)
- A platform ladder, wheelbarrow, square shovel, cement mixer and wood saw.
- A kanga or small digging machine
- Labour or volunteers to assist the construction
- 25mm potable water supply and 240V electrical supply
- Construction of the strip footings of foundation
Have a look at our Projects and Testimonial pages for some of our successful systems!
To enquire about Food Ladder opportunities for your school, please contact [email protected].