Budding students grow in education and harvest the vegetables in a grow tower donated by HappyVille Farms

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - A classroom at Dora Erickson has been growing vegetables in an indoor garden growing tower. The tower was donated by Happyville Farms and placed in Morgan Hammon's Fifth and Sixth grade classroom.

"Just bringing everything to life for kids. They're so used to seeing pictures or videos or not experiencing it for themselves. So as much as I can bring it into the classroom and see it hands-on and in their face, that's my goal," Dora Erickson Elementary School teacher Morgan Hammon said. "It's been a draw to come to school because they want to see this part of it."

The class harvested the last of their winter crop and prepares the tower for the next phase of the growing season with flowers for Mother's Day and Cherry tomatoes for the summer. Once their lettuce was harvested, they made a salad from the harvested lettuce.

Students say the tower ignited their passion for learning how to grow things. "It's good, it's delicious and it's homemade," Blake Bartle said.

"We got like this, alien-looking thing, tower thing as we're growing plants on it," Karin Palacios said.

"Just like a really cool class like Garden," Emily Gemar said.

"We've tried all different types of dressings, different kinds of lettuce with it, 3 to 4 kinds today. I think we've had seven different types throughout all we've got in November. So since November, we've tried seven different types of lettuce in our salads. We've got other plants growing that we've discovered like tomatoes. So we had peas, strawberries, all sorts of things, different seasonings, even. It's been a great time. I look forward to this holiday. Other kids look forward to salad days, Staff looks forward to salad day. It's just going to take over the whole school," Hammon said.

The class gets to see firsthand how the different plants grow and the science behind the process. Kids are also more excited to attend class just to see the progress in the plants.

"You need a lot of water to grow these plants. Cause they like water. You need these to grow big, and you really like to check on the water and everything, and it helps it grow bigger," Palacios said.

"They need a lot of light and they need a lot of water," Bartle said.

The grow tower is sponsored by the Happyville Farms in Idaho Falls. They are hoping to expand not just their tower but maybe add another one into the school.

"Ideally we'd like to add on more layers. So we have 36 plants instead of 24 and maybe even a second grow tower in the school. Since it's so popular school-wide," Hammon said.

Claudia Pine the director of HappyVille Farms says in the end it will be up to the community. "It's just one of those things where if the community decides that we want kids in schools to be eating fresh produce and falling in love with it and learning to eat all of it and want more, that this is one way to go."

Pine says while online donations are still a work in progress those wanting to help the students get first-hand experience in growing fresh produce can help in a couple of different ways.

Pine says you can mail any checks or cash donations to 282 East 13th Street, in Idaho Falls.

Or you can visit the farm on a Saturday at 640 South Saturn in Idaho Falls.

The farm is usually open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Hammon adds you can even visit the school and donate to the program that way.