CANTON, Ohio – Along a pair of 80-foot-long planted rows, cucumbers are beginning to sprout on what was a football field at SEAMM Academy of Hartford in Canton.
The idea for what is being transformed into a food forest behind the school started from a group of seventh graders working on a school project back in 2021.
Thomas Mankowski and David Thompson, now in eleventh grade, were part of the team of kids who presented a plan to solve the problem of a neighborhood food desert by creating a place to grow produce and help people in need.
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“You don’t think any of the little projects you do in middle school will really come to life or anything, but I think this one will,” Mankowski said. “Our idea was to create a farm.”
Stark Tank, which rewards young local entrepreneurs, took notice and raised some seed money to make the dream a reality.
Three years later, the food forest has started to grow with cucumbers. Other vegetables, like lettuce and radishes, will be planted in a few weeks. In the spring, hundreds of fruit trees and berry bushes will be added to the entire half-hectare site.
Mankowski and Thompson are excited to see that their original plan, which included blueprints for all the crops, is coming to fruition.
“It means a lot to know that your class — and you were a part of it — to help come up with this idea,” Thompson said.
Horticulture teacher Logan Walter, who also shows students how to care for chickens and the intricacies of running a greenhouse, said the new food-growing space shows the power of persistence three years later.
“I think it’s a great experience for them. It’s an even greater experience for teachers because when we’re put in a position to empower students, it teaches us as well,” Walter said.
Ultimately, Walter said some of the produce will be sold to the community when there is a surplus. Some of the food can also be integrated into the cafeteria or sent home to families.
The food forest wasn’t the only idea that SEAMM middle school students came up with in 2021.
An eighth-grade engineering student came up with a design that proposed a 10,000-square-foot multi-use building.
The students, who are now high school students, felt there was a need for more space for students and community members to exercise.
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The Canton City School District took heart and used more than $4 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to construct the building, which was recently completed.
The space has a basketball/volleyball court, but can also be used for indoor recess, extended classroom and community events.
The building’s two garage doors lead to a retention pond to be filled with fish and used for science experiments, horticulture and agriculture classes.
Vanessa Board teaches fourth and fifth grade social studies at STEAMM now, but three years ago she was working with enterprising engineering students.
“You throw these ideas out to kids, but for them to actually see it come to fruition is a whole other level of like, wow, I’m really coming up with ideas and they’re actually happening,” the board said.
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