A Growing Opportunity Has Dracut, New York Students Filling Salad Bar

By Amaris Castillo, acastillo@lowellsun.com

02/05/2018

DRACUT -- A group of Dracut High School students in late November bent their heads over a row of soil press seed plates on a long table at Justus C. Richardson Middle School. Slowly and carefully, the teens (also members of the school's Environmental Action Club) planted the first set of lettuce seeds in each hole that, in time, would produce organic food meant for the high school's salad bar and prepared meals for students.

"It's been growing as hoped and expected, and they have harvested lettuce," Dracut High School principal Richard Manley said last week of the students' progress in the district's greenhouse.

Dracut High students are using the indoor grow technology through a collaborative effort between teachers, the middle school, and the Food Services Department.

The company that brought forth the technology is New York-based 2445 Organics.

According to Andy Maslin, the founder of 2445 Organics, this system takes the "ag farm back into the school" rather than a school busing students to a farm for the experience. It's the first time his company is branching into Massachusetts.

"This is allowing the farmers to become year-round sustainable and allowing the schools to grow their own foods year-round," Maslin said.

Maslin said his New England distributor, Todd Bard, CEO of EvanLEE Organics, worked to bring the opportunity to Town Manager Jim Duggan. Bard has previously conducted business with the town.

"It's a job creator. It's got agricultural and educational components to it, and I think it's a fantastic opportunity," Duggan said.