When you walk into Caledonia Regional High School, you are greeted with long hallways lined with colourful posters and student artwork. This spring those hallways will lead to a new kind of classroom a four-season greenhouse.
Located in the small community of Hillsborough, about 25 kilometres south of Moncton, the school hopes its geothermal greenhouse will provide students with a hands-on learning opportunity.
A geothermal greenhouse uses heat from the ground to make the temperatures inside the greenhouse suitable for growing.
Principal Emily Ostler Colpitts said the plan is to open the greenhouse in April, and students will grow a variety of vegetables almost all year round
She said it will also later be accompanied by a "food forest" with raspberries, blueberries and apples.
"I think the impact on students is going to be immeasurable," she said. "Taking care of a living thing gives such a sense of pride and responsibility."
Ostler Colpitts said the greenhouse will be incorporated into students' everyday learning.
"Everything from math class, science class, culinary technology, biology, nutrition."
WATCH | A sense of pride and responsibility': How keepers of Hillsborough school greenhouse hope to fight food insecurity
February 28 | Duration 2:47
Principal of Caledonia Regional High School says students will get hands-on learning experience.
She said students will log the growth of plants and learn about planting and harvesting.
Ostler Colpitts said she came up with the idea about three years ago and, shortly after that, she approached Foods of the Fundy Valley, a non-profit focused on food security in Albert County, and asked if they were interested in partnering.
Alicia O'Hara, a board member of Foods of the Fundy Valley, said the organization wanted to work with the school because the project aligns with their goals.
Tackling food insecurity
O'Hara hopes the greenhouse will help address food insecurity in the community by donating vegetables to local food banks during the summer harvest.
According to O'Hara, Hillsborough is vulnerable to higher rates of food insecurity.
"We have one grocery store in the area and we're a lower socioeconomic area with no [public] transportation and just less resources," she said.
Megan Mace, the co-ordinator of Foods of the Fundy Valley, said Albert County is in "what we call a fresh food desert."
"There's not a lot of access to fresh grocery stores," she said.
But Mace said the greenhouse can help fill that gap by providing residents with direct access to fresh food.
"In New Brunswick, we have a three- to four-month growing season and with this greenhouse we can extend that," she said. "That dramatically increases the accessibility of fresh food."
Grade 11 student Gracie-Lynn Jackman said the greenhouse will also help low-income students to access fresh fruits and vegetables, which tend to be more expensive than packaged foods.
"I think it'll be really rewarding seeing how the community is going to be helped by something we're doing at our school," Jackman said.
Emma Barkhouse, who is in Grade 12, is excited about the new learning opportunities that will come with the greenhouse.
She hopes teachers will take advantage of the opportunity to teach students about agriculture and how geothermal energy works.
Ostler Colpitts said the project was inspired by Port Elgin Regional School, who opened their winterized greenhouse back in 2021.
Christoph Becker, the principal of Port Elgin Regional School, said their greenhouse has opened up new learning opportunities.
Christoph Becker, principal of Port Elgin Regional School, said the greenhouse has presented new opportunities for students over the last few years (Hope Edmond/CBC)
Becker said students can work in the greenhouse for one hour each day, starting seedlings, planting and watering.
"They have to report on what they've learned and it becomes quite a wonderful learning thing because they do journals and they record data," Becker said.
"When we went to school, the academics were the ones that succeeded and those that weren't necessarily academics felt that they didn't belong. And this offers everybody a chance to succeed."
Port Elgin students enjoy the fruits of their labour from winterized greenhouse
The school also has a salad bar filled with lettuce grown in the greenhouse, and Becker said this has helped lower cafeteria costs.
Chris Morrison, an educational assistant at Port Elgin Regional School, said food grown in the greenhouse is also used as ingredients in culinary class. She said students have made kale bites, pickled beets, relish and salsa. And some of these products are sold at the local pharmacy.
"Children need to learn these skills," Becker said.
"I'm super happy that other people are following suit."
Source:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/geothermal-school-green
