The School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) has named Megan Grippa, Child Nutrition Coordinator for Lebanon City Schools in OH, recipient of the Fork Farms Equipment Grant.

MFAI is set to partner with Fork Farms on the initiative’s educational component. Fork Farms is a Wisconsin-based food access technology company that makes a hydroponic growing system called Flex Farm.

The Flex Farm hydroponic growing systems are manufactured by Fork Farms, which provides detailed instructions on their usage.

Lettuce harvested in the system is the most commonly used crop in school lunch programs.

Itawamba Agriculture High School’s (IAHS) agriculture program has added a hydroponics unit that lets students grow vegetables indoors without soil.

Heather Carpenter, diversified agriculture science teacher and Future Farmers of America advisor at IAHS, said the unit gives students hands-on experience with a new production style.

While many districts adopt hydroponic container systems for STEM and career education, an increasing number are also using them to address local food access challenges.

Container farms for food security in schools are being positioned not only as educational infrastructure but also as community-facing food production assets.

The state recently awarded the Watertown Schools a grant to run its farm-to-school program, including its Freight Farm. Watertown Public Schools has received more than $80,000 in state grant funding to continue its farm-to-school efforts, expanding learning opportunities for Watertown’s students while also increasing local food production.

The freight container is not just a teaching tool but also provides fresh produce for students around the district.

Known as a Freight Farm, the container is filled with walls outfitted with equipment to water and nourish hundreds of plants, and lights to help them grow.

The school’s child nutrition team recently started experimenting with two vertical hydroponic growing systems.

"It started as like kind of a pipe dream idea over the summer," said the school's child nutrition coordinator, Megan Grippa. "We had someone from Fork Farms, where we purchased our hydroponic farms from, speak at my conference and I heard a little bit of her speech and was kind of inspired."

Amanda Estes, 17, harvests green star lettuce on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, grown at Germantown High School's Flex Farm, an indoor mobile hydroponic farm from Fork Farms in Germantown, Wisconsin. Estes, a vegetarian, said she has learned a lot about plants' life cycles while participating in this class.

"We can feed the entire cafeteria with the lettuce we produce here. I feel like I'm making a difference in our community.