By WILL PERKINS
Glasgow News 1
In March 2025, Barren County High School FFA members visited Red Cross Elementary to help the younger students construct a garden behind the building.
Fast forward to the end of this school year, every campus in the Barren County school district now grows food that is used in their cafeterias.
“The kids really love it,” said Josh Maples, principal of Red Cross Elementary, the day the garden was built. “The kids are going to learn about planting crops, how to tend to them, and the value of hard work and that it pays off.”
A year later, their hard work has already sprouted with results.
This past school year, Red Cross students produced over 60 pounds of lettuce, half a pound of strawberries, seven ounces of parsley, 10 ounces of cilantro and 44 ounces of basil, according to an announcement from Barren County Schools.
When Matthew Estes helped the younger students construct the garden, he said their eyes lit up when he told them they would eventually get to eat the vegetables they were growing.
“That was a really cool moment,” said Estes, who was still in high school at the time. He has since graduated and now serves as FFA President for the state. “They thought that was pretty special, that they’re planting what they will be eating in the cafeteria one day.”
The school district’s Trojan Table Farm to School initiative recently received a boost when it was awarded a $123,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Among other additions, this funding will allow for two new greenhouses to be built at elementary schools.
“This will also increase our production capacity and have a deeper integration of locally grown food and student-grown food,” said CheyAnne Fant, who was the director of nutrition services at the time, and has since announced her retirement.
When the Red Cross garden was built, Andy Joe Moore was an agriculture teacher and FFA adviser for the high school. He was later named the Farm to School coordinator for the school district.
“Advocating for the value and significance of quality food has been a driving initiative throughout my life,” Moore said in a press release announcing his new position. “Food doesn’t exist without agriculture, and the model of agriculture education has become a time-tested success story like no other.”
Moore wore a huge smile when he spoke to school board members about the new grant. He said it will give every student in the district the opportunity to be a part of the program.
“We don’t have to exclude anybody,” he said. “We might have somebody that wants to grow a tomato plant in a five-gallon bucket on their back porch.
“Now we can do that.”
As the Barren County school district looks to the future of student-led food production, it wrapped up this school year announcing the yield from each building:
Barren County High School – over 1,346 pounds of lettuce
Barren County Middle School – over 15 pounds of lettuce
Hiseville Elementary – over 38 pounds of apples, two pounds of green beans, six pounds of red potatoes, 89 pumpkins, 41 pounds of lettuce and 28 pounds of tomatoes
Eastern Elementary – over 67 cucumbers, six pounds of potatoes and 178 pounds of tomatoes
North Jackson Elementary – over nine pounds of broccoli, 13 pounds of radishes, one pound of strawberries, two pounds of sugar snap peas and 34 pounds of lettuce
Park City Elementary – over 47 pounds of green beans, three pounds of zucchini, one pound of yellow squash and 34 pounds of tomatoes
Temple Hill Elementary – over three pounds of sugar snap peas
Austin Tracy Elementary – over 89 pounds of yellow squash and three pounds of green beans
The school district also recognized several students for contributing to the cafeteria:
Ainsley Cash – over 23 pounds of yellow squash, seven pounds of zucchini and 26 cucumbers
Gracie Jones – over 1.5 gallons of blackberries
Holland Kelsay – over 460 pounds of green beans
Bridgette Smith – over 52 pounds of yellow squash and 21 pounds of green bell peppers
The Estes Family – 15 dozen ears of corn
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