Western Kentucky students enjoy Kentucky Proud lettuce for lunch

KDA connects Kentucky grower to area schools

By CHRIS ALDRIDGE, Kentucky Agricultural News

Seven western Kentucky public school districts are serving lunches containing Kentucky Proud lettuce from Kentucky Hydro Farm.

The Marshall County farm near Benton is supplying hydroponically grown lettuce to county schools in Calloway, Christian, Graves, Marshall and McCracken counties, and city schools in Paducah and Mayfield.

One of the farm’s best customers is Leah Mills, food service director for Graves County Schools. After attending the annual Commodity Conference, sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Division of Food Distribution, in December in Bowling Green, she decided to replace half of the school system’s iceberg lettuce with Kentucky-grown varieties from Matt Wyatt of Kentucky Hydro Farm.

 “They had a KDA conference where they talked about buying Kentucky Proud [produce],” Mills said. “I heard good things about one or two districts that began using Matt’s produce.”

Wyatt credited Tina Garland, coordinator of the KDA’s Farm to School program, for opening doors to new school cafeterias.

 “School nutrition is on everybody’s mind now,” Wyatt said, “and there are so many benefits of buying local that everybody is starting to grasp.”

Mills said she buys a majority of her lettuce, about 3,000 heads of lettuce per month, from Wyatt.

“Graves County has been real consistent,” Wyatt said. “Other schools are teeter-tottering on the fence. Sometimes they order; sometimes they won’t. I’m trying to teach old dogs new tricks.”

Wyatt called Graves County a pioneer for embracing the health benefits of the farm’s Kentucky Living Mini Mix, a blend of three types of lettuce. Its small clumps are convenient for individual lunch room servings. “All the cafeteria has to do is break off the root system, and it’s ready to go,” Wyatt noted.

Kentucky Hydro Farm can also fill orders for other varieties of lettuce, such as Bibb and romaine. “Whatever they desire,” Wyatt noted.

Mills said she became one of the first food service directors in Kentucky to start buying locally grown lettuce because it’s locally grown, chemical free, fresh, delivered within one day of harvesting, low in calories and high in vitamins and minerals.

“Since it’s new to kids, we’ve been mixing it this year with iceberg lettuce,” Mills said. “Matt’s lettuce doesn’t look like iceberg. It’s greener and brighter, and it’s healthier, so we’re trying to camouflage it from the kids right now. But we plan to buy all of our lettuce from Matt in the future.”

Mills also plans to buy other types of hydroponically grown produce from Wyatt when it is in season. Kentucky Hydro Farm supplied tomatoes and Bibb lettuce to Churchill Downs to serve during last year’s Kentucky Derby. Churchill also bought Wyatt’s tomatoes in 2007, when Queen Elizabeth of England visited and enjoyed a meal made of Kentucky-grown food, and again in 2008.

Kentucky Hydro Farm also grows English cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, herbs and micro and baby mixed greens.

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants in greenhouses using mineral nutrient solutions in water instead of soil.

Wyatt said lettuce pays the farm’s bills right now. “We’re able to produce it through the winter,” he said.

Wyatt traveled to Lexington recently to drum up business after learning that nine Fayette County elementary schools received a grant for a fresh fruit and vegetable program. “I’m trying to get all of ’em [schools] around home first, then branch out,” he said.

Kentucky Hydro Farm also sells its produce and other produce at farmers’ markets and in a few small groceries in Marshall County. A Web site is under construction.

Wyatt believes promotion is the key to getting Kentucky Proud lettuce into the mouths of more Kentucky school kids. Right now, he said his only promotion is a brochure he made that some schools post in the lunch room that tout the benefits of his lettuce, ending in “Grown in Kentucky – like YOU!”

“The biggest thing is getting schools to promote it more,” he said. “If the kids don’t understand that it’s a local product, safer and nutritious, they’ll walk right by it. That’s the next step – educating the kids and the teachers.

“I’m trying to plant the seeds,” Wyatt added, “as well as the ideas.”

Matt Wyatt of Kentucky Hydro Farm delivers a box of hydroponically grown Kentucky Proud lettuce to Graves County Middle School cafeteria manager Erica Davis. (Photo by Paul Schaumburg, Graves County Schools)