Fairfax County students use 'vertical farms' to help feed the community

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — The shed in the back of Luther Jackson Middle School off Gallows Road is small, but what's happening inside, is making a big impact in Fairfax County.

Mark Smith's 8th-grade engineering students use aquaponics to grow food. The small shed behind the school is lined with rows of fresh spinach. 

Aquaponics is a process that uses no soil and very little water. The goal behind it, is to minimize waste and space, with the produce growing upward. 

"This system uses 99 percent less water than farming and uses 99 percent less space than farming," Smith said. 

The students are also raising tilapia. The waste from the fish is used as fertilizer to help the spinach grow. Once the tilapia are big enough, they will be transferred to a larger tank and will eventually be ready to eat. 

The 15 students maintain everything themselves, producing and harvesting approximately 50 bags of spinach a month. 

It took two years of research to get this idea off the ground. It started with one student's desire to build a farm that could survive on Mars. That student has since moved on to high school, leaving other students to maintain the vertical farms. 

This experiment is funded by the school's Equity in Science, Technology, Engineering, English, and Math (ESTEEM) project, run by Smith. 

However, this is much more than just an engineering grade for the students. They are using their work to help their fellow classmates. The spinach and soon the tilapia are donated to the school's food pantry. 

"It means a lot knowing we can help other people by doing this," 8th grader Seth Heironimus said. 

The food pantry, run by the PTA, feeds about 70 food-insecure families from Luther Jackson Middle School. With this project, those families now have better access to healthier options. 

The students tell WUSA9 their goal is to spread the use of vertical farms at other schools all across Fairfax County.