Back in late November, Dr. Michael Saccone contacted Lettuce Etc about partnering on a mission to bring AI to aquaponics. That landed both of us in the greenhouse at the Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) absorbing as much data as possible from the two deep-water culture systems being run by an advanced aquaponics class. They were growing four varieties of lettuce, while we collected water-quality, pixelated-image, and other growth and systems data. (More about AI-and-aquaponics in future posts!)
Every Thursday, after collecting specific plant-weight data on randomly selected lettuce heads, the group harvested and individually packaged the heads.
This did involve single-use plastic bags, but it also allowed us to distribute over 2,000 heads to Communities In Schools (CISNM) as well as many hundreds more to the students, faculty, and staff at SFCC as well a families in need connected with the college’s Campus Cupboard, Santa Fe Mutual Aid, Albuquerque Mutual Aid, and two large and appreciative groups of seniors!
It also involved many, many smiles along the way!
Back in 2020 as the pandemic broke, we started working with CISNM and for 20 weeks, we added fresh produce to the bags that go home every week with the families in need that CISNM is connected with. What a great non-profit CISNM is! Please support them in any way you can at https://www.communitiesinschools.org/ . The organization has a presence in 25 states and the District of Columbia, and they really know what they are doing and how to do it.
Every week, a site coordinator puts together a large grocery bag full of various foods. Primarily this means nonperishables like those shown on the right side of the photo above, but each school also has a refrigerator for perishables. Since refrigeration is key to preventing food waste, growing and maintaining this partnership has been an inspiring success! THANK YOU, COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS!
And thanks, of course, must also go to the hard working students and faculty at SFCC who are not always excited to learn but are also always determined to give back to the Santa Fe community!
