Past the cafeteria chaos and rush of students, on the bottom floor of the high school, there is a quiet green space teeming with life.
The high school’s indoor farm, filled with basil, kale and lettuce, is a student-powered effort in feeding the school and shaping ideas about sustainability. Launched in 2022 by Director of Food Services Sasha Palmer and social studies teacher Roger Grande, in collaboration with the Climate and Food Justice Club, the indoor farm supplies fresh, locally-grown produce for school lunches.
The indoor farm began as a broader initiative of connecting students with locally-sourced, sustainable food.
“Right before COVID, a group of people in Brookline Public Schools, mostly from Pierce and BHS, started a farm-to-school initiative. It’s happening around the country. The idea is to bring your food closer to farmers who are growing it,” Grande said.
According to Sustainability Coordinator Rebeca Palacios, the first year of the indoor farm was full of trial and error.
“It takes time until you really understand how it works and how to properly do it. Even the tiny, tiny things that you think you’re doing correctly, many times don’t work,” Palacios said. “We planted too many seeds at first, and it was overcrowded. And watering was tricky, too.”
Junior Lydia Touloumtzis, a member of the Climate and Food Justice Club, joined the farm this year after working on the compost crew previously.
“Last year, I was on the compost crew, but because of a change in circumstances, I ended up not doing that. This sounded like an interesting and fun alternative to help environmentally,” Touloumtzis said.
Palacios appreciates both the locality and the eco-friendliness of the farming process.
“We reuse the soil over and over again. We harvest the whole thing, and then we let them grow another time. So that happens three times. After that, the soil is going to the compost. And after several weeks, the compost turns into healthy soil,” Palacios said.
Touloumtzis works on the farm most Wednesdays and hopes to inspire a broader interest in sustainable practices within the school community.
“I hope that we can, first of all, have this used in the school lunches so that we don’t have to buy as much food. But second of all, that people gain a passion for farming and realize you can grow your own food,” Touloumtzis said.
According to Grande, along with sustainability, students’ well-being is an important outcome that the committee strives for.
“It was more about getting students and some staff involved for all sorts of reasons, including mental health and giving a social emotional boost,” Grande said. “I mean, getting your hands on soil, seeing something that you created over time and product, and then having other people be able to use it is incredibly satisfying.”