Students at Bruce Randolph School are receiving a one-time grant of more than a half-million dollars to build and manage a hydroponic farm that will be used to help them develop food skills and knowledge. Everything grown on the urban farm will be fed to students and their families. 

Hydroponics is a way of growing crops without using soil, a technique that allows farmers to produce food anywhere, anytime, with fewer resources. 

On Monday, the Denver City Council unanimously approved a one-year, $529,350 intergovernmental agreement with Denver Public Schools that will not only pay for the construction and management of the hydroponic farm but will also support accompanying coursework designed to help students identify food insecurity, as well as understand health and nutrition.

According to Laine Cidlowski, a food systems administrator for the city’s public health department, one in five Denver youths last year experienced food insecurity, which is defined as not having reliable access to affordable, nutritious food. One in three battled obesity. 

Funding is provided through the Health Food for Denver’s Kids program, which was created through a citizen-led ballot initiative in 2018 that bumped the city’s sales tax by .08% to provide healthier food options for city kids. The initiative allocates funding to nonprofits, schools and local government agencies focused on healthy food and food-based education. 

“The hydroponic farm will ensure students recognize food justice and insecurity, understand health and nutrition, actively engage in STEM education and build a pathway to future income,” public health officials wrote in a contract request to the Denver City Council, “all while providing fresh and affordable produce to both students and their community through urban farming, food preparation and food preservation.”

Bruce Randolph School serves students in sixth through 12th grades in the Swansea, Elyria and Clayton neighborhoods. The school was renamed in 2010 after the late barbecue restaurant owner and community philanthropist “Daddy Bruce” Randolph, who made it a point to feed the city for free every Thanksgiving.