GARDENING GROUP: Members of Send Hunger Packing Princeton have established an indoor vertical farm in the lobby at Littlebrook Elementary School so children can grow produce throughout the winter months.

By Anne Levin

In the lobby of Littlebrook Elementary School, two white, vertical fixtures will soon be covered with green. They are part of a recently installed hydroponic garden, designed to allow students who tend the raised bed gardens outside to continue their efforts indoors, during the winter months.

The installation is a pilot program of Send Hunger Packing Princeton (SHUPP), which founder Ross Wishnick hopes to expand. “We’re hoping it works well, so we can buy more for the other elementary schools,” he said.

Now in its 10th year, SHUPP is a nonprofit that distributes weekend food packs, provided by partner organization Mercer Street Friends, to children in the Princeton schools and Princeton Nursery School. According to its website, SHUPP has distributed more than 100,000 meals in its efforts to eliminate food insecurity with its Weekend Backpack Initiative, its partnership with the Arm in Arm food pantry, and community-wide summer support.

The indoor garden at Littlebrook is part of an ongoing collaboration with Princeton Public Schools. Students will be able to study, experiment, and maintain a gardening pod that has the potential to grow as much as 300 pounds of produce throughout the year.

“This is something I have been thinking about quite a bit,” said Wishnick. “It’s great that all of us are providing food to people who have needs. But it is not necessarily known inherently how to grow plants. This is about teaching people to do that.”

The unit for the vertical garden arrived a month ago, and volunteers assembled it a few weeks later. But the grow light had broken in transit, so a new one had to be ordered. It arrived and was recently installed.

“The process is very simple, but it’s a process,” Wishnick said. “We were able to germinate seeds in just a few days.”

Hydroponic gardening maximizes space, conserves water, facilitates a micro-climate, needs no soil, and requires less labor than outdoor gardening. Plants grow faster and larger. There are no weeds, pests, or disease to interfere with the growing process.

The unit in Littlebrook’s lobby is highly visible. “We did a little bit of research to find a unit that was a little more robust than most,” said Wishnick. “They have teaching modules, which will be used to some extent as a guide to teach about hydroponic farming.”

SHUPP will continue its mission of providing bags of produce to those who need it. “But this has longer term benefits to kids and their families,” Wishnick said. “The principal at Littlebrook is very excited about it, and so are we. It fulfills our interest in giving more than just food.”