A Hydroponic-Agriculture Renaissance

Center-to-Plate Garden
Orange County Convention Center

In the 1950's the use of plastic proliferated throughout a wide array of industries. New technologies using plastic catapulted society into the high-tech modern world of today. Greenhouses along with hydroponic farming benefited from the new technologies and lighter weight, cost-effective plastic construction material.

According to The Hydroponics Planet The History of Hydroponics article, the use of low-cost plastic as a staple construction material allowed for the innovation of drip systems, improved irrigation, filters, water reservoirs, among other inventions. Thus, modern hydroponic farming emerged as a result of the newly accessible and low-cost plastic materials.

... and a hydroponic-agriculture renaissance ensued in commercial locations previously inaccessible to farms.

Hydroponics: history(1)
Derived from the Greek words hydro (water) and ponos (labor), hydroponics simply is a gardening method that does not use soil. William Gericke, a professor at the University of California in Berkeley coined the term in the 1920's.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon
source: Ancient History Encyclopedia

Though modern hydroponics emerged in the 1920's, hydroponic gardens were prominent in several ancient cultures. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, built by  King Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BC) along the East bank of the Euphrates River used hydroponic principles. From several hundred years BC, Egyptian hieroglyphics portray plants growing without soil along the Nile River.

During the Aztec reign in Mexico, natives constructed chinampas, rafts built with reeds and strong roots, and loaded them with rich sediment from nearby shallow lake waters. Plants thrived on the rafts; roots absorbed minerals from the sediment and worked through the raft to the lake below for consistent food and hydration. In its prime, the chinampas fed a community of 200,000 inhabitants. Chinampas may serve as the earliest example of aquaponics, a combination of aquaculture (practice of raising aquatic animals) and hydroponics in a symbiotic environment.

In the 1500's, Leonardo de Vince wrote his profound deduction that is the foundation of modern hydroponics:

“To develop, plants need mineral elements that they absorb from the soil by means of water. Without water, the plants do not survive, even if the soil has the mineral elements they need.

Water is as if it were the soul of plants, as minerals are as if they were the soul of soil. If we could transmit to the soul of plants [the water], the strength of the soul of soil [the minerals], perhaps we would not need it [the soil] to make plants survive and multiply.

I believe that, in a future that does not belong to me, that [this] will be possible. So, it is advisable to add fertiliser and irrigate periodically the lands for us to get a healthy and productive plantation.”

Credited as the catalyst for hydroponics research and writing, Sir Frances Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum, a book on growing plants in an environment without soil, published after his death in 1627. Subsequently, hydroponics research grew in popularity.

Often referred to as the "Father of Hydroponics," John Woodward, an English naturalist, antiquarian and geologist, published his experiments on growing mint without soil in 1699. As the first documented hydroponics, Woodward's experiments mark the inaugural step in the creation of modern hydroponics.

In the mid-1850's, French chemist Jean Baptiste Boussingault discovered that plants do not absorb atmospheric nitrogen; the roots derive nitrogen from mineral-rich water in the soil. Thus, Jean Baptiste proposed what is now referred to as the Nitrogen Cycle, how the element circulates between the atmosphere, terrestrial, and marine realms.

Previously mentioned William Gericke, a professor at the University of California in Berkeley, coined the terms aquaculture and hydroponics. Additionally, in the 1920's Gericke famously grew hydroponic-tomato plants twenty-five feet tall. While Woodward is known as the "Father of Hydroponics," Gericke is known as the "Father Modern Hydroponics" and published the renowned The Complete Guide to Soilless Gardening.

Wake Island hydroponics
Source: HydroponicAdvantage

During World War II, hydroponics was used extensively to feed the troops in the Pacific and South Atlantic. The first commercial hydroponics facility was built on Wake Island, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean used for global-flight refueling. Produce grown in the hydroponics facility was used to feed passengers during the long trans-Pacific flights.

By the 1960's the first specific hydroponic system, Nutrient Film Technique (NFT), was developed in England by Allan Cooper. NFT systems use a growing tray placed at an angle with channels for the plant roots. A water-based nutrient solution constantly flows over the roots, providing nutrition and aeration. Water not absorbed by the roots is recycled back through the system with no water waste.

In the 1990's NASA developed aeroponics to grow plants in zero gravity during space missions. Rather than water flowing over the roots, a nutrient solution is sprayed onto the roots. Thus, NASA research was the foundation for new patented aeroponic systems. Aeroponics is considered a type of hydroponics.

Hydroponics: advantages
Though hydroponic farming has many strong advantages, one of the most impressive characteristics is the water-savings over traditional soil-based farming. According to a University of Arizona Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science 2011 article:

A hydroponic lettuce system could use only 10 percent of the water needed compared to field-grown lettuce. Arizona uses about 70 percent of its water for agriculture. Theoretically, about 90 percent of all that water could be saved if every farm converted to hydroponics

Creative hydroponics design
at the Center-to-Plate garden

Space-saving is another practical attribute of hydroponic systems. Since water is the nutrient-delivery vehicle with no soil buffering, plants are easily placed closely together and may be vertically stacked. Thus, with creative design hydroponic systems can fit into a facility's nooks & crannies. For commercial installations, the close plant proximity produces larger harvests than with their soil-based counterparts.

Additionally, in hydroponic systems, crops mature from seeds to harvest in a shorter time frame. According to the Epic Gardening article, 7 reasons hydroponics wins, a head of lettuce grows from seedling to harvest in around a month in hydroponics compared to two months in soil.

Eliminating the use of "cides" (insecticides, pesticides and herbicides) is a powerful environmental advantage for enclosed hydroponic farming. By controlling the growing environment, weeds, insect pests and other soil-borne diseases are not a factor for hydroponically grown crops and the use of "cides" is not applicable.

Per The Hydroponic Planet article, is hydroponic food nutritious?, food safety is another advantage inherent with hydroponic farming:

By removing the soil from the equation, as well as manure-based fertilizer, hydroponic growing greatly reduces the risk of contaminated food making it to the supermarket. The reduced risk of contamination is one of hydroponics great health advantages over traditionally grown food.

Tomatillo blossom
Center-to-Plate garden

Another advantage of indoor systems is a year-round growing season and the ability to grow "out-of-season" crops.

Since many hydroponic farms grow food for local destinations, the food is fresher due to shorter transportation times and arrives with a lower carbon footprint. The current hydroponic-agriculture renaissance encompasses strong potential to increase food access in urban neighborhoods, especially those within food deserts.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, berries (e.g. strawberries, blueberries), leafy vegetables (e.g. lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, spinach), peppers, herbs, and spring onions grow well in hydroponic systems and represent the most common crops.

Hydroponics: challenges
Installing a hydroponics system requires an upfront capital investment. Additionally, ongoing constant monitoring by a manager trained in the system's checks and balances is necessary to maintain healthy operations.

Molly Crouch checks
the Center-to-Plate garden

As they run on electricity, hydroponic farms are vulnerable to power outages and back-up generators are recommended. If a power outage extends beyond the generator's capabilities, the entire remaining crop is lost.

Though free from weeds, insects and soil-born illnesses, indoor systems are vulnerable to water-borne microorganisms that may infest the system. Pythium (water mold) root rot is a common water-borne disease in hydroponic farming and can be difficult to control once plants are infected. According to the Urban Ag News article, Pythium root rot on hydroponically grown basil and spinach, careful attention to growing practices and sanitation procedures can limit this disease to an occasional annoyance rather than an annihilating nemesis.

When disease strikes a hydroponics farm, the entire crop is infected due to the circulating water feed and potentially lost, depending on the disease type and intensity.

Though overall hydroponic farming is void of fertilizers and the "cides," few farms pursue organic certification. Organic nutrient solutions often clump and clog the pumps; thus, the system requires constant monitoring to ensure consistent water flow. The risk of clogged pumps and losing an entire crop often does not justify the benefits of organic certification.

Despite the stated challenges, hydroponic farming is common place for local food production in a variety of environments, ranging from regenerative farms to public-school systems to convention centers. The following sections depict successful hydroponic operations discovered during Elemental Impact (Ei) Founder Holly Elmore's travels.

Hickory Grove Farm | KSU Field Station(2)

HGF Hydroponics Lab

In 2013 the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) leased a 26-acre tract of land to Kennesaw State University (KSU) for farm use. Formally, the site was the GDOT cement-mixing site for nearby I-75 construction. Though not toxic, the Hickory Grove Farm (HGF) soil was severely compacted and devoid of necessary minerals to sustain a healthy soil ecosystem. In addition, stormwater flowed off the property, rather than hydrate the "dead soil."

Due to the deteriorated state of the soil, one of the first HGF structures built was the Hydroponics Lab, which housed a state-of-the-art vertical hydroponic system. With each plant watered individually, the periodic dry time emulated nature and prevented root rot often prevalent in hydroponic systems. Within the lab, the tomato, cucumber, and various peppers-crop yields were impressive. Planting was timed to generate crops within the KSU-class rhythm.

Lush lettuce in the
Hydroponics Lab

Originally, HGF served as as a laboratory for The Michael A. Leven School of Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality (CSH) with an active class schedule. To prepare the students with the necessary skills to evolve into valuable culinary and hospitality-industry employees, the CSH required 400 hours of work experience and 200 volunteer hours for program graduation. Thus, HGF was the recipient of a significant number of student-volunteer hours for farm work.

In October 2017, KSU announced the CSH would be phased out by spring of 2021 and was no longer accepting new students. Thus, HGF lost their steady stream of student-volunteer hours and the farm-labor budget, other than HGF Farm Manager Michael Blackwell. It was time to step back and evolve the farm's strategic-operations plan.

With limited farm labor, Blackwell immediately assessed how he could maintain crop production. A top priority was replacing the the original vertical-hydroponics system with a table-top system to focus on lettuce and reduce required labor. With the Hydroponics Lab's new system, lettuce grows from seeds to ready-for-harvest in six weeks, broken down into three, two-week stages.

HGF can easily produce 400 pounds of lettuce per week, more than KSU Dining Services uses, even when at  full capacity feeding 6,000 students per day. Thus, Blackwell experimented with growing herbs and other produce in the Hydroponics Lab.

Italian parsley and Swiss chard
thrive in the hydroponics system

Effective July 1, 2019 the KSU Office of Research took over HGF management and renamed the farm the KSU Field Station. According to KSU Vice-President for Research Phaedra Corso, “The KSU Field Station is a valuable resource with endless possibilities to study how to protect and conserve our environment through different disciplinary lenses. We look forward to exploring new ways to make this Field Station a more integral and collaborative component of the KSU research experience for faculty and staff.”

The Hydroponics Lab is integral to the farm's new life as the Field Station and will continue to grow quality lettuce, herbs and other produce for KSU's stellar farm-to-campus dining program. Under Blackwell's leadership, the Field Station may integrate technology with regenerative farming practices to grow local, nutritious food in a cost-effective manner. By example, the Field Station may showcase how to prevent and/or repair urban-food deserts.

Blackwell substantiates the Field Station's important contributions:

“Through our work, not only are we demonstrating how to efficiently grow food in environmentally friendly ways, but we are also offering opportunities for KSU students and faculty to study the different biological and ecological systems so that we can be responsible stewards for our planet’s future,” 

The RiA Magazine article, Success is not static: evolution is required to create and sustain regeneration, details HGF's evolution from a campus farm to a research-field station. In addition, the article features the Georgia Institute of Technology sustainability team's visit to the farm as well as to KSU Dining Services.

An on-line version of the 2017 Southern Farm & Garden fall issue seven-page, multiple-article feature, the Ei Digital Book, Regenerative Agriculture Revives Soils & Local Ecosystems, showcases the incredible transformation of a former cement-mixing site into a regenerative farm. Holly provided the copy and photographs for the publication feature.

Spartanburg County Schools District Six

SCSD6 Hydroponic Greenhouse

In 2014 Spartanburg County Schools District Six (SCSD6) made a commitment to serve their students healthy food and brought food-service operations internal. Travis Fisher was hired as the Director of Food Services to oversee the culinary operations in the fourteen cafeterias as well as the catering operations.

SCSD6 SUCCESS: as shared in a WYFF July 2015 news report, SCSD6 served 38,000 more breakfasts, 106,000 more lunches, and 9,000 more dinners in the first year of serving healthy, from-scratch food to their students.

A natural extension of a healthy-food program is a farm-to-school focus supporting local agriculture. In 2016, SCSD6 evolved the farm-to-school focus to a campus-to-cafeteria endeavor with the construction of a greenhouse on the backside of the Dorman Freshman Campus. Buttercrunch lettuce, other lettuces, and herbs are grown in two different hydroponic formats for delivery to cafeterias.

SCSD6 NFT table-top system

In order to demonstrate diverse hydroponic/aeroponic growing techniques, SCSD6 first installed aeroponic tower systems and more recently installed a NFT tabletop-hydroponic system. SCSD6 learned the NFT system is much easier to monitor and maintain than the aeroponic towers.

At current capacity, the SCSDG greenhouse may grow 2,565 plants at any given time; each of the three aeroponic towers holds 675 plants for a total of 2,025 plants while the NFT systems grows up to 540 plants. At this juncture, 100% of the hydroponic-grown lettuces and herbs are destined for district-student dining.

SCSDG Director of Food Safety and Sustainability Patricia Tripp confirms food safety is a top priority within the district's commitment to serve healthy, nutritious food to students:

Growing hydroponically in a greenhouse allows the district to: 1) Grow year-around; 2) Grow in a sterilized medium that holds water and nutrients close to the roots of the plant; 3) Nurture the plants and students in a controlled and comfortable environment while providing a high-tech agriculture education. 

Aeroponic towers at SCSD6

The hydroponic greenhouse was a perfect step in SCSD6's evolution of the campus-to-cafeteria commitment to the recently launched Farm 2 School program.

In 2016, SCSD6 took possession of the 16-acre plot of land destined for the district's organic-certified farm. For the first year, farm staff tested the land to determine what could be grown crop-wise and officially opened as an operating farm in 2017. The SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor is the foundation for creating a hyper-local food system for SCSD6. Even with the farm fully operational, all lettuce is grown within the safety of the hydroponic greenhouse.

The RiA Magazine article, Spartanburg County School District Six: a culture of EXCELLENCE!, gives an overview of the impressive school district and introduces the Farm at Cragmoor. The Ei FB album, Spartanburg County School District Six, is a pictorial recap of SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor tours along with greenhouse images.

Center-to-Table Gardens

Center-to-Table open-air
aeroponic garden

Though commercial hydroponic gardens are generally enclosed in greenhouses, public facilities and schools often install open-air hydroponic systems for educational purposes. In addition, the open-air gardens provide ambiance as well as substantiate the facility's sustainability commitment.

Orange County Convention Center (OCCC), the second largest convention center in the nation, walks the sustainability talk with their Center-to-Plate gardens. Operated by OCCC food-service contractor Centerplate, the open-air hydroponic gardens are located in the Westwood lobby and greet convention attendees with a cheerful, sustainable welcome.

Opened in late 2016, the Center-to-Table Gardens were named the 2017 Outstanding Sustainable Program winner at the annual U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Central Florida region's LEEDership awards.

OCCC Sustainability Manager John Roberts substantiates the empowering message the Center-to-Table gardens give to arriving guests:

"Located immediately inside the main facility entrance, the Center-to-Plate Gardens welcome guests to the convention center via a wall of beautiful green foods; lettuce, kale, basil, scallions, mint. Strategically, guests ride alongside the gardens as they travel to main center levels. The gardens serve as a gateway into the myriad of sustainable experiences commonplace at the OCCC."

Colorful sprouts in the
Seedling Propagation Area

Toxic-chemical-free fruits, vegetables and edible flowers are grown from seed in the Seedling Propagation Area. Once mature, the saplings are transferred to the aeroponic towers to flourish until harvest. Urban Smart Farms manages the 2,000 square foot gardens, consisting of 81 aeroponic towers in two displays on opposite ends of the lobby.

With 44 planting spots per tower, the garden capacity is 3500+ concurrent plants. Planting is staggered to provide a consistent crop harvest. Delivered to Centerplate's kitchens, harvested crops are prepared for service to the convention center guests.

The onsite gardens allow Centerplate Executive Chef James “Chef K” Katurakes and his team the ability to use hyperlocal ingredients to increase the overall “Fresh from Florida” focus at the OCCC. Growing fully mature plants in 30 days also adds to their culinary creativity. At a fall 2018 event in the garden area co-hosted by OCCC and Centerplate at the UFI Sustainability Summit, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, a featured menu item was a small-plate salad composed of baby oak leaf lettuce hearts from the Center-to-Table Gardens.

OCCC - Centerplate Director of Sustainability Molly Crouch emphasizes Centerplate's strong support of and partnership with the OCCC on environmental commitments and endeavors:

John Roberts & Molly Crouch
in the aeroponic garden

Centerplate is a proud sustainable partner with the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida. The OCCC continues to raise its commitment to the environment through waste diversion, energy efficiency, community service, and local purchasing/sourcing including hyperlocal sourcing through its onsite Center-to-Table Gardens managed by Centerplate and its farming partner Urban Smart Farms.  

By having such a strong relationship with the OCCC, Centerplate is able to expand its own sustainable initiatives while working in congruence with the Center's goals. Centerplate looks forward to partnering with the OCCC for many years to come and continuing to advance sustainable programs and policies.

In September 2019, Molly hosted Holly for a photo shoot of the impressive aeroponic gardens and propagation area. The visit was also a follow-up meeting for the Ei Three-Step Straw Initiative.

The Holly Elmore Images FB album, Hydroponics Farming, showcases tours of the three featured commercial-hydroponic applications.

With the global population and desertification escalating along with a diminishing clean water supply, hydroponics farming holds promise to feed the world's citizens with healthy, nutritious food produced in a cost-effective and water-conscious manner.

... and remember relatively low-cost, lightweight commercial-grade plastic is the workhorse within the hydroponic-agriculture renaissance.

Resources:
(1) The Hydroponics Planet article A Brief History of Hydroponics by Oscar Stephens was the primary resource for the History section.

(2) Quotes and information relating to the KSU Field Station were obtained from the July 17, 2019 KSU blog post, Office of Research manages sustainable farm renamed KSU Field Station.

Spartanburg County School District Six: a culture of EXCELLENCE!

Under the leadership of Spartanburg County School District Six (SCSD6) Superintendent Dr. Darryl Owings, a culture of excellence infiltrates the district's entire spectrum of operations. With the strong support of the nine-member School Board, Darryl ensures the SCSD6 adheres to their mission to always put the children first.

The SCSD6 administrative offices as well as the main district campus are located in Roebuck, SC on a sprawling 292-acre tract of land. Intertwined within the SCSD6 facilities are natural wetlands, wooded areas, and walking trails available for students and the community.

Within the Roebuck vicinity, a profound community spirit permeates the local area. Steeped in pre-Revolutionary War heritage, Roebuck is the home to the Walnut Grove Plantation, Charles and Mary Moore's residence built in 1765 on land granted to them in 1763 by King George III. The Walnut Grove Plantation is on the National Register of Historic Places and open to the public as a living history farm.

Over 2016 and 2017, the South Carolina (SC) Conservation Bank purchased a total of 120 acres of family-owned land from Charles and Mary Moore's descendants. In 2016, Upstate Forever protected the land with a conservation easement to set aside the land for educational and agricultural purpose. The Spartanburg County Foundation owns the protected land while Upstate Forever administers the property. In a long-term agreement, SCSD6 leases 16 acres to use as an organic farm to grow produce for the district schools.

Per the Upstate Forever site, partial funding from the South Carolina (SC) Conservation Bank offsets some of the costs involved in placing the easement, making the land donation, and endowing the property’s perpetual care. The entire tract of land is known as the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor.

Within the community spirit, resident Roger Milliken founded the Noble Tree Foundation in 1999 with the following mission: "To enhance the well-being of the citizens of Spartanburg County through the promotion of landscaping and excellence in horticulture." By definition, noble trees are planted to live for multiple generations while enhancing the landscape, providing shade, and grow into fixtures within the surrounding landscape. Some of the Milliken noble trees are visible from the SCSD6 campus.

Elemental Impact Visits Spartanburg
In October 2018 Elemental Impact (Ei) along with Ei Strategic Ally Feed & Seed hosted the Ei Exploration of Fungi, Soil Health and World Hunger. During the final exploration session at the Clemson organic-student farm, Feed & Seed Chair Mary Hipp shared on the amazing healthy-food school programs at SCSD6 as well as down the road 20+ miles at Greenville County Schools.

The tour group, left to right:
Greg, Mary and Darryl

Inspired, Ei Founder Holly Elmore traveled to Greenville | Spartanburg in May 2019 to meet the masterminds behind the healthy-food school programs and tour their respective operations. Mary was generous with her time, connections, and spirit as she hosted Holly for two-consecutive days of meetings and tours.

On May 14 Darryl, along with SCSD6 Deputy Superintendent Dr. Greg Cantrell, hosted Mary and Holly for an introductory meeting in the district's offices. Afterwards, Darryl and Greg took Mary and Holly on tours of the campus greenhouse followed by the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor where healthy, organic food is grown for the school cafeterias. The locally grown, healthy-food commitment at SCSD6 was evident and impressive.

SCSD6 - at a glance
One of seven Spartanburg County districts, SCSD6 enrolls approximately 11,500 students, and the district employs nearly 900 certified staff members. The school system consists of one child development center, nine elementary schools, three middle schools, one ninth-grade school campus and one high school. The student teacher ratio is sixteen to one.

From the Census Reporter, SCSD6 is 150.6 square miles with a population just under 68,000 individuals. The median age is 37.2 years old and 26% of the population under 18 years of age live in poverty conditions.

Though the overall student graduation rate is 88.6%, for students who attended SCSD6 in grades 9-12 the graduation rate is 96.8 %. Committed to preparing students for successful lives, the R.D. Anderson Applied Technology Center (RDA) was a pioneer in the development of vocational centers in SC and a Palmetto Gold Winner for 11 years.

According to the RDA ATC Fast Fact Sheet, 2,875 students participated in RDA courses in the 2017-2018 school year. RDA offers certifications | licenses in a variety of fields including State Cosmetology License, Certified Nursing Assistant, First Aid / CPR / AED, Servsafe, and more. Local industry donated $40,000 for student scholarships in the 2017 - 2018 school year.

At Dorman High School, more than 90% of graduates attend a 2 or 4-year college, university, or enter the military and $19 million in scholarships was earned last school year. In the 2017 - 2018 school year, over 900 students completed dual-enrollment courses for college credit at no cost to them; over 800 completed AP exams and earned college credit.

Beyond student academics, within the SCSD6 culture of excellence is a commitment to student health and wellness.

Commitment to Health & Wellness

When students come first, a commitment to health and wellness naturally follows. As a significant step in serving students healthy, freshly prepared food, SCSD6 ended their third-party foodservice-operator contract and established internal culinary operations.

According the July 2015 GoUpstate.com article, Fresh-cooked meals catch on in District 6 schools, newly hired kitchen staff underwent extensive culinary training. Most of the staff were employees of prior the foodservice contracter and were familiar with the kitchens. Yet, their culinary tasks were mainly limited to heating and serving food that required minimal basic-kitchen skills.

Cragmoor Farm view from entrance

Culinary Partners (CP) provided the 36-hour course that educated the staff on basic-kitchen skills, nutrition, food safety, pallet development, and marketing skills to entice students to try the fresh-food options. During her tenure as Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services (GCS FANS) Director, CP Executive Director Eileen Staples, spearheaded the Greenville schools healthy-food school program launch in 2010 with impressive results.

The RiA Magazine article, #schoolfoodROCKS: indeed, school food does rock in Greenville County, SC!, gives the history and evolution of the amazing school-foodservice program embarked upon by Eileen and further excelled under the current GCS FANS Director Joe Urban. A section in the Holly Elmore Images FB album, Greenville, SC, gives a pictorial recap of Ei's GSC FANS cafeteria tour and lunch.

In January 2014, SCSD6 hired Travis Fisher as the Director of Food Services to oversee the culinary operations in the fourteen cafeterias as well as the catering operations. A seasoned culinary professional, Travis started his career in the restaurant industry. More recently, Travis worked eight years at Aramark where he served as Assistant Director of Child Nutrition before his promotion to Executive Director of Foodservice at a SC-school district. Travis was an investment within the SCSD6 commitment to excellence.

SCSD6 greenhouse on the backside
of the Dorman Freshman Campus

SCSD6 SUCCESS: as shared in a WYFF July 2015 news report, SCSD6 served 38,000 more breakfasts, 106,000 more lunches, and 9,000 more dinners in the first year of serving healthy, from-scratch food to their students.

A natural extension of a healthy-food program is a farm-to-school focus supporting local agriculture. In 2016, SCSD6 evolved the farm-to-school focus to a campus-to-cafeteria endeavor with the construction of a greenhouse on the backside of the Dorman Freshman Campus. Buttercrunch lettuce, other lettuces, and herbs are grown in a Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) hydroponic growing system.

Per the RiA Magazine article, Success is not static: evolution is required to create and sustain regeneration, on Kennesaw State University's Hickory Grove Farm, a regenerative farm built on a prior Georgia Department of Transportation cement-mixing site:

Mary touring the greenhouse
NFT hydroponic system

In addition to not requiring soil for healthy crops, hydroponic-agriculture systems save tremendous water. According to a University of Arizona Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science 2011 article: 

A hydroponic lettuce system could use only 10 percent of the water needed compared to field-grown lettuce. Arizona uses about 70 percent of its water for agriculture. Theoretically, about 90 percent of all that water could be saved if every farm converted to hydroponics.

According to Greg, the greenhouse NFT system provides approximately 50% of the district cafeterias' lettuce consumption.

The Farm 2 School website page states there are currently six operating elementary-school gardens within the district, one middle-school garden, and more gardens are in the planning stages. In addition to providing nutritious food, the campus gardens and agricultural endeavors serve as a student-educational platform with formal and informal programs in place.

SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor 

Farm view from the packing house

In 2016, SCSD6 took possession of the 16-acre plot of land destined for the district's organic-certified farm within their Farm 2 School program. For the first year, farm staff tested the land to determine what could be grown crop-wise and officially opened as an operating farm in 2017. The SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor is the foundation for creating a hyper-local food system for SCSD6.

From inception, the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor was U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Good Agricultural Practices certified. With the land in possession for three consecutive years, SCSD6 is in the midst of obtaining USDA Organic certification. In accordance with the USDA National Organic Program standards, organic crops must be grown on land that is free from prohibited pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers for three years preceding growth.

With the farm research complete, SCSD6 invested in the farm staff and equipment necessary to fully embark on the Farm 2 School initiative. In 2018, SCSD6 invested in an impressive packing house including a wash line for root crops, an ice machine for packing broccoli & other vegetables, and a dual walk-in cooler system.

Dual walk-in coolers in the
packing house

The coolers are maintained at different temperatures to maximize optimal shelf life and produce quality. In addition, it is important to store certain fruits and vegetables separately. For example, onions and potatoes excrete incompatible gasses that lead to faster spoilage.

Only root vegetables are cleaned in the wash line as rinsing fruits and vegetables may lead to earlier spoilage. Thus, field crops such a zucchini, squash, watermelon, tomatoes, lettuces, and herbs are field-packed and washed in the cafeterias prior to kitchen prep. Lettuces and herbs from the greenhouse are transported to packing house where they are aggregated with the farm crops for delivery to the district cafeterias via a refrigerated truck.

Installed in March 2019, the farm high tunnel is used to germinate seedlings for crop planting. As seedlings were previously germinated in the greenhouse, NFT lettuce and herb production may be increased due to freed greenhouse space. The high tunnel may serve as a totally or partially enclosed facility; when totally enclosed the seedlings are protected from insect pests.

A tomato greenhouse is under construction with an August completion date.

SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor bee hives

In April 2017, honey bees arrived at the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor thanks to Dorman High School Resource Officer, Sean Roberts. As a beekeeper, Sean delivered approximately 20,000 bees to the farm for aiding in crop pollination as well as the delicious honey byproduct. The Bees Arrive at SC Spartanburg County School District Six! video on the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group website is excellent coverage of the bees' arrival.

Aligning with a national trend, SCSD6 purchased a food truck in 2018 to service special events and camps within the district. Via the USDA-sponsored Summer Meals Program, SCSD6 distributes free lunches to children under 18 years old, regardless of whether they live in the district or not.

In the final development stages, the goal is for the Farm at Cragmoor to attain self-sustaining financial status by 2021. Revenue is derived from the district cafeterias who pay market rate for the farm produce and the summer Farmers Market hosted at the farm. As peak produce season is during the district's summer break, the Farmers Market allows the farm to maximize the crop production with a financially rewarding outcome. The market is open to the community.

Ethan & Patricia

Farm staff includes three full-time field workers, two full-time seasonal workers, and one part-time staff member. In addition to field responsibilities, Ethan Jarrett works in the packing house as well as administers crop planning, seed sourcing, and product distribution.

From a management perspective, Philip Ward joined the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor team almost from inception. Philip is responsible for soil health, land preparation, and equipment maintenance. Recently, Lisa Stansell left her GCS agriculture-teacher position to join SCSD6 as the Farm 2 School Director. In her new role, Lisa oversees the entire Farm 2 School program including farm and greenhouse educational platform development.

Another recent farm-management investment was hiring Patricia Tripp in April as the SCSD6 Director of Food Safety and Sustainability.

Food Safety First
Food quality and food safety are integrated cohesively within best agricultural practices.

As a highly respected food-safety and best agricultural-practices industry expert, Patricia brings nine years of farm food-safety experience to her new responsibilities at SCSD6. Patricia is the steward for creating and sustaining a food-safety culture at the farm and throughout the district.

Vegetable wash line in the
packing house

Beyond establishing formal agricultural food-safety practices, Patricia is charged with obtaining the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor's organic certification. Additionally, Patricia oversees the transformation of the recently closed nearby Old Fairforest Middle School cafeteria kitchen into a food-processing center.

Scheduled to open in August, the processing center will initially use the farm's roma tomatoes to make tomato sauce as well as freezing freshly harvested produce. The intention is to expand to ten value-added products this fiscal year. Patricia will establish the food-safety standards and policies for the processing center.

With the SCSD6 healthy-food commitment staged to excel into the next implementation stage, it is an incredibly busy time at the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor and the district as a whole.

Awards, Honors and Grants. 
At the 2018 ForeverGreen Awards Luncheon, the Spartanburg School District 6: Farm 2 School Initiative was honored with the Tommy Wyche Land Conservation Champion Award. The award video emphasized how the Farm 2 School Initiative success is the result of a strong collaboration between the Moore Family descendants, mainly Tom Moore Craig, Upstate Forever, SC Conservation Bank, and the Spartanburg County Foundation.

Tomato seedlings ready for
planting in the field

In the 2019 SC Best School District Rankings, SCSD6 is ranked #3 with an overall "A" ranking, the same as the #1 and #2 districts. In specific categories, SCSD6 received an A+ in Clubs | Activities and Diversity.

Grant funding is often key to implementing aggressive programs such as the SCSD6 Farm 2 School Initiative. In a collaborative spirit, SCSD6 received numerous impressive national, state and local grants to augment and support the Farm 2 School Initiative, whether directly for the farm, creating school gardens or related to agriculture and nutrition education. As stated on the Farm 2 School website page:

The district was awarded the SC Department of Agriculture Grant to support school gardens, to source food locally, and to incorporate agriculture and nutrition education into school curriculums. In addition, the district received a USDA Farm to School Grant and the Healthy School Initiative Grant, a partnership with the Mary Black Foundation. To further encourage agriculture and nutrition education, the district was awarded an AmeriCorps Grant to create a new program, FarmCorps.

The Ei FB album, Spartanburg County School District Six, is a pictorial recap of the SCSD6 Farm at Cragmoor tour.

To achieve a culture of excellence, consistent strong leadership must continually develop and demand the highest standards, attract individuals with similar moral values and work ethics, invest in the staff, equipment and facilities necessary for desired achievements, and showcase success as the culmination of collaborative effort within the organization and the community as a whole.

With Dr. Darryl Owings at the helm, the Spartanburg County School District Six encases the ingredients for a culture of excellence throughout the district. The School 2 Farm Initiative moving from the development to the operational phase exemplifies the district's culture of EXCELLENCE.

#schoolfoodROCKS: indeed, school food does rock in Greenville County, SC!

Greenville County Schools (GCS) Food and Nutrition Services (FANS) Director Joe Urban created the #schoolfoodROCKS social-media branding for the incredible school-foodservice operation under his direction. Passionate about establishing healthy-food-school programs as the standard across the nation and beyond, Joe uses GCS FANS's success to inspire other school systems to evolve their food programs.

A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School

The evolution of the GCS FANS-food program inaugurated in 2010 with the support of then Superintendent Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher. Soon-to-open A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School was designated as the pilot for the healthy-food program. Ron Jones was hired as a GCS FANS Culinary Specialist to develop and oversee the pilot.

Once the FANS healthy-food program grew into standard-operating practices, Ron left GCS FANS for his current position, Director of the Office of Health and Nutrition at the South Carolina State Department of Education. In the meantime, Joe was promoted to GCS FANS Director.

Elemental Impact Visits Greenville
In October 2018 Elemental Impact (Ei) along with Ei Strategic Ally Feed & Seed hosted the Ei Exploration of Fungi, Soil Health and World Hunger. During the final exploration session at the Clemson organic-student farm, Feed & Seed Chair Mary Hipp shared on the amazing healthy-food school programs at Greenville County Schools as well as up the road 20+ miles at Spartanburg County Schools, District Six.

Inspired, Ei Founder Holly Elmore traveled to Greenville in May 2019 to meet the masterminds behind the healthy-food school programs and tour their respective operations. Mary was generous with her time, connections and spirit as she hosted Holly for two consecutive days of meetings and tours.

Lunch served during FANS visit

On May 15 Joe, along with FANS Coordinator of Operations Paula Wambeke and Culinary Specialist Brian Hickey, hosted Mary and Holly for an introductory meeting on GSC FANS' impressive healthy-meals program. Following the program history and current scenario education, the group toured the Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School cafeteria and enjoyed an amazing lunch.

The lunch was absolutely delicious and healthy! Joe made it clear the lunch served was standard fare and the staff was unaware of the cafeteria visit.

Holly was thrilled the homemade mac 'n cheese was on the menu as well as the Philly-cheesesteak sandwich made with Certified Angus Beef sliced steak. The mac 'n cheese as well as the corn & potato chowder were made with local milk that arrives with cream on the top. Plump farm-fresh strawberries and blueberries were the two fruit options and were divinely delicious. Holly's only lunch disappointment was her request for a half-sandwich instead of the full-serving.

GCS FANS - at a glance
Located in the South Carolina Upstate, GCS is the largest school system in the state with 76,000+ students and the 44th largest in the nation. The 750 FANS-foodservice professionals serve approximately 80,000 meals daily while school is in session for a total of 14 million meals annually. GCS includes 100 school facilities and special centers while FANS operates 93 commercial kitchens.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Greenville comprises a total area of 795-square miles, consisting of 785-square miles of land and nearly 10-square miles of water. With the vast topography, the GCS-student population is diverse, from an economic status as well as their ethnic-heritage perspective.

When classes are in session, each school serves breakfast and lunch daily and several augment with afternoon snacks. Though the national average is about 50%, approximately 75% of GCS students eat FANS meals during the school year. Breakfast is free to every child, no matter their subsidy status. Of the 30% of the students who choose breakfast, the vast majority are on the subsidized plan.

During the summer, FANS continues to offer meals in less affluent neighborhoods via eight stops by the food truck (bagged lunches), 25 community sites (bagged lunches), and 25 schools (hot meals). FANS serves up to 5,000 meals Monday through Friday in the summer yet the number may get as low as 2,000 meals.

An Evolution to Healthy Food
With success at the 2010 A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School pilot, by 2011 ten additional elementary schools were initiated into the healthy-food-school program. The strategy was to start with the younger students in elementary schools followed by a rollout in the middle and high schools. Soon, the first class that consumed healthy food through their entire GCS tenure graduates.

Early program challenges included parental resistance, limited purchasing options via the state-purchasing group, staff unskilled in basic-kitchen protocol, and developing healthy menus that garnered student approval.

Each lunch shift fills the cafeteria
 with students eager to eat lunch.

Surprisingly, in the beginning FANS experienced parental push-back related to a "do not tell our kids what to eat" attitude. In addition, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (Sec. 204 of Public Law 111-296) and parents were resentful of the government essentially saying "what you have been doing food wise is wrong."

Using foresight, FANS developed a lunch program that far exceeded the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) new regulations. According to the NSLP Fact Sheet:

The NSLP is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child-care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946. 

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers the Program at the Federal level. At the State level, the NSLP is administered by State agencies, which operate the Program through agreements with school-food authorities.

By 2016, 30.4 million students participated in the NSLP. School-lunch programs must strictly adhere to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to receive reimbursement for the free and low-cost lunches served pursuant to the Act.

In 2012, FANS left the SC Purchasing Alliance, evolved their purchasing decisions, and developed their own bid specifications. Using their significant power-of-consumer demand, FANS worked in partnership with a broad-line distributor to develop a local-products and made-from-scratch purchasing platform. Beyond the purchasing flexibility afforded by contracting with them, FANS relies on a broad-line distributor to ensure local farmers and other applicable purveyors are USDA Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certified, as required by the NSLP. Joe emphasizes the importance of working in partnership with vendors.

Food safety first in FANS kitchens:
employee temperature tests chicken
tenders prior to service

An added regional benefit of FANS' contract is a local broad-line distributor now carries a wide variety of local products that are also available to smaller foodservice customers. Closeby Furman University demands their contracted foodservice operator Bon Appetit adhere to similar local and organic-purchasing regimine. Thanks to FANS, Bon Appetit has access to such products from a local broad-line distributor.

Before embarking on the healthy-food-school program, FANS staff served prepared food that required minimal to no cooking skills. Fresh food was reasonably non-existent. Thus, the staff required significant culinary-skills training to prep, cook, and serve menu items made in-house.

Over years, the entire FANS 750-person staff participated in Culinary Creations where they learned valuable skills in nutrition, safety, cost control, production line and setup.

According to a May 2013 Foodservice Director profile, Eileen Staples: Staying Ahead, Eileen Staples didn't wait for new meal regs to kick in, she made adjustments on her own, then FANS Director Eileen Staples renovated GCS foodservice in anticipation of the forthcoming USDA regulations as follows:

• Developing Culinary Creations, a dining program that improves the quality and healthfulness of meals. A chef was hired to lead the program, in which more items are cooked from scratch.
• Focusing on training, particularly food safety, to ensure the department’s goals are consistent throughout this large district.
• Renovating or rebuilding 60 school cafeterias, which led to increased participation.
• Taking over school stores to sell students food items and school supplies.

Garnering student approval of the healthy food-school program was a process that continues today. For a year, FANS management simply witnessed student-eating habits and watched the lines. Management listened to the students with open ears without getting offended. Starting with the younger children was strategic as the older students' expectations were influenced by years of eating unhealthy school food.

Self-serve salad bar at a
middle school

Joe pays particular attention to trends, especially student preferences at food courts. Students prefer diversity and like to compile meals themselves from a variety of options. Thus, the high school offers mac 'n cheese, hamburger, taco and other build-your-own bars. All school cafeterias menus include salad bars.

According to Joe, kids will eat anything served for free from a food truck. Thus, FANS often tests new menu items from their food truck for student feedback, especially for ethnic recipes.

FANS menus are sensitive to allergies and cultural | personal dietary restrictions. Each day students may create vegetarian or vegan meals from the standard-menu offerings.

The Many Facets of Success

By 2014, the healthy-food-school-program foundation was established and ready to catapult to next dimensions. With perfect timing, Joe was promoted to FANS Director and took the helm of the entire foodservice operation. Using his in-depth culinary background, Joe implemented his vision of serving students high-quality, nutritious food on a daily basis.

Canned fruit was banned from FANS kitchens and replaced with seasonal, fresh fruit, locally grown when practical. Soups offered daily are made from scratch in the kitchens. 

Philly-cheesesteak sandwiches
made with Certified Angus Beef
sliced steak.

FANS' beef-menu items are made from 100% Certified Angus Beef, whether the ground-beef 4-ounces hamburger patties or the Philly-cheesesteak sandwiches made with sliced steak. Reportedly, GCS FANS is the only school system in the nation serving 100% Certified Angus Beef.

Highly processed chicken was replaced with minimally processed whole-muscle items. Delicious chicken tenders are one of the standard daily menu options; in the middle and high-school menus, chicken tenders are purchased as a la carte items.

Premium seafood - Alaskan pollock or salmon, mahi-mahi, catfish, trout - is a priority in menu development. Seafood is served a minimum of once per week for all grade levels.

“Super-premium” items like St. Louis-style ribs, smoked beef brisket, salmon, chicken wings and chicken and waffle sandwiches were added to the rotating-school menu.

In late 2016, FANS purchased a used bread truck for $11,000 with only 36,000 miles. With another approximately $39,000 spent in renovations, FANS was the proud owner of a cool food truck for a $50,000 investment. The food truck's purpose was to increase the number of meals served in the summer program, to provide value-added services to schools for special events, and for taste-testing potential new menu items. The food truck was completely funded from the FANS-operating budget.

As previously mentioned, there is considerable diversity in the county's school-district-economic status, ranging from affluent to impoverished or at least economically challenged. FANS has a strict policy that every school is served an identical menu, with absolutely no favoritism towards the more affluent schools.

Fresh seasonal fruit is
self-service on the food line.

Beyond serving students healthy food, FANS encourages students interested in the culinary arts. Beginning in 2015, FANS participated in a kids-cooking contest at Euphoria, an acclaimed food, music and arts festival hosted in Greenville. The contest pairs the student with a celebrity chef in town for the festival; the chef serves as the student's sous chef in the timed-recipe challenge. One of the contest awards is the winner's recipe is added to the FANS menu.

Often FANS develops culinary programs that complement academic curriculum. Several cafeterias participate in Low CoConservation lessons via vertical-hydroponics systems. Herbs and microgreens grown in the vertical-tower gardens are served on the salad bars and as garnish. Another example was an educational trout program where the students nurtured trout from eggs to alevins (baby trout) to fish ready for release. Thus, the students follow trout from eggs to the plate with trout on the lunch menu.

When a third-grade class studied traditional Carolina cooking, Joe pulled on his extensive celebrity-chef connections to craft a low-country boil as well as slow-smoking a whole hog overnight. Anthony DiBernardo (Swig & Swine BBQ) and Johnny Carino (Carino’s Italian) joined Joe for the impressive, tasty educational event. Anthony slow-smoked the hog along with 23 pork shoulders for pulled-pork sandwiches while Johnny used locally sourced shrimp from Buford, SC for the low-country boil.

According to Joe, “We parked a rig just outside the cafeteria where the kids could see it through the glass when they arrived in the morning.” Students as well as their parents enjoyed a tasty local lunch that augmented class curriculum.

Awards & Accolades

GCS FANS is the recipient of numerous national awards and international recognition over a range of categories. In 2015 and 2016, GCS FANS earned USDA Best Practices Awards in Fiscal Management. The prestigious award recognizes school districts that utilize creative and accountable practices for managing finances in tough economic times including practices that reduce costs and/or increase efficiency in school-nutrition programs and efforts to better serve program participants more efficiently with available resources.

Joe knows success requires teamwork.
FANS Management team with Feed & Seed
Mary Hipp. Pictured left to right:
Paula Wambeke, Joe, Mary & Brian Hickey

When the Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) named him an Ambassador in May 2017, Joe received global recognition for revolutionizing school-food programs. According to the SNP site, Ambassadors are comprised of high-profile individuals that have a passion for health & wellness, seafood nutrition, and addressing America’s public-health crisis. As stated in the Joe Urban Is Inspiring Kids to Eat Healthier by Redefining What School Food Can Be press release, the SLP believes Joe is a School-Lunch Hero.

Per fellow Ambassador Johnny Carino, "Joe is a pioneer. He pushes his staff daily to get better, to undergo training, to create new dishes in his test kitchen, and to inspire other schools to take school food to a new level."

In January 2018 Food Management announced: K-12 Innovator of the Year: Greenville County Schools with an in-depth article on GCS FANS. The article highlights Joe's ingenious path to creating the award-winning school-food program. Beyond serving healthy food to the students, FANS empowers employees and makes innovative contributions to school-course curriculum.

Fiscally Fit
Though there is unwavering GCS support of the healthy-food-school program, FANS must maintain fiscal responsibility and cover 100% of its costs; there are no subsidies or draws from the county general-fund available. Thus, Joe uses his extensive restaurant experience and runs FANS like a chain-restaurant business versus a government-school system.

Each kitchen manager is responsible for managing costs at their school cafeteria. Food and dry-good ordering is done at the kitchen level using a standardized purchasing system. Employees, whether management or hourly, are empowered with ample training and take ownership of serving healthy food with smiles to students.

FANS's back-of-house kitchens are
neat, spotless and organized, all indicators
of an exceptionally well-run kitchen. 

The foodservice industry is notorious for costly high-labor turnover. Restaurants rarely offer health-insurance benefits to hourly employees and only sometimes to management. FANS employees are treated respectfully, trained on a continuous basis to develop strong culinary skills, and receive full county-health-insurance benefits. Additionally, work is complete in the early afternoon. Thus, employees are free to work another job or simply spend time with their children in the afternoon.

Thus, FANS experiences low-employee turnover.

Working in partnership with vendors is key to maintaining consistently low-cost margins and taking advantage of spur-of-the-moment opportunities due to market surplus. As previously stated, FANS serves 14-million meals annually and has considerable purchasing power to negotiate contracts with low-cost margins.

Yet, astute business acumen is necessary to operate a 750-employee business in a cost-effective manner. Joe Urban expertly intertwines his profound passion with business-savvy finesse and runs an award-winning healthy-food school program.

A section in the Holly Elmore Images FB album, Greenville, SC, gives a pictorial recap of the GSC FANS' cafeteria tour and lunch.

Indeed, #schoolfoodROCKS at Greenville County Schools Nutrition and Food Services! Now it is time replicate the successful template across South Carolina, the Southeast, and the nation.

Greenville, #yeahthatgreenville, is a southern treasure

Over the past decade plus Greenville, SC, #yeahthatgreenville, experienced a tremendous resurgence as a coveted business and personal destination. National and global media took notice and consistently give Greenville prominent accolades related to quality and value-oriented travel, the excellent food scene, a sports and nature destination as well the city's livability.

Below and throughout the article are impressive accolades listed on the Visit Greenville, SC site.

Best Small Cities in the U.S. 2018 (Greenville, SC is #9)

Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards

9 Affordable U.S. Destinations for 2019

AARP

#3 Top New Foodie Cities in America

People

2018 Reader's Choice Awards - Favorite Destinations for Community Engagement

Sports Destination Management

49 of the Best Hiking Trails in the U.S. to Try Out This Fall

Business Insider

#22 Best Place to Live in the USA 2019

U.S News & World Report

BMW Manufacturing Plant 

BMW Plant
image courtesy of BMW

Until BMW opened their nearby manufacturing plant in 1994, Greenville and the entire Upstate SC remained economically traumatized by the textile industry demise in the 1970's. The BMW plant opening served as the catalyst for Greenville's economic revival and resurgence as a nationally and globally recognized great place to work, live and play.

Twenty-five years later, the BMW plant continues as a powerful regional-economic driver. Pursuant to the BMW Plant Spartanburg Stats and Information page:

BMW Manufacturing employs more than 11,000 people to produce the X3, X5 and X7 Sports Activity Vehicle and the X4 and X6 Sports Activity Coupe. The 1,150-acre, 7-million-square-foot campus generates its own power, offers an on-site Family Health Center and provides 24-hour security and firefighting personnel. To date, BMW has invested over $10 billion in its South Carolina operations.

Beyond the direct impact, BMW spurred business development in auxiliary companies and seemingly unrelated organizations. With a strong economic foundation Greenville is simply a good place for businesses to flourish.

#21 Best Small City to Start a Small Business

Verizon.com

Greenville Amenities

Reedy River Falls
view from Liberty Bridge

Greenville is blessed with an array of natural and man-made amenities. Within downtown Greenville's Historic West End, the city-owned Falls at Reedy Park is an urban paradise enjoyed by residents as well as visitors. Completed in 2002, The Liberty Bridge overlooks the impressive Reedy River falls.

Funded by Greenville's hospitality tax, the $4.5 million Liberty Bridge honors Liberty Corporation founder W. Frank Hipp and his children for their commitment and contribution to the Greenville community. While bridges with similar structural concepts have been built in Europe, the Liberty Bridge is unique in its geometry and there is nothing like it in the United States.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail is 22-mile path designed for cycling and walking that connects Travelers Rest to Greenville. Traversing along an old railroad corridor and the Reedy River, the trail crosses through the Falls park.

Liberty Bridge

Located within Greenville County, Caesars Head State Park and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains are excellent cycling, both bicycle and motorcycle, venues. Professional cyclist (bicycle) George Hincapie, a longtime teammate of Lance Armstrong, trained in the the Greenville area for the Tour de France and other global races.

When he retired George chose Greenville for his permanent home. Along with his brother, George launched two local businesses: Hincapie Sportswear, a high-end sportswear shop carrying technical apparel, gear & casual wear for cyclists & triathletes, and Hotel Domestique, part countryside auberge, part modern boutique hotel and culinary destination.

2018 Champions of Economic Impact in Sports Tourism: Innovations in Sports Tourism

Sports Destination Management

An acclaimed food, music and arts festival, Euphoria was founded in 2006 with a four-prong mission:

• To promote tourism in Greenville, SC
• To create a destination event for food, wine, and music lovers across the country
• To highlight the  culinary and music arts community of Upstate South Carolina
• To raise money to give back to the community

Euphoria showcases Greenville at its best and attracts locals as well as travelers to enjoy the festivities. Attendees enjoy exclusive tasting events, intimate musical experiences, cooking demonstrations and wine seminars, as well as multi-course dinners and live music concerts.

The Top Food Festivals & Foodie Events for Fall (Euphoria & Fall For Greenville)

StyleBlueprint

Organic, local lettuces
destined for The Anchorage

Over the past decade, Greenville attracted talented chefs to the quaint city who opened a wide array of dining destinations. Passionate about food quality, the chefs are drivers in supporting local-organic agriculture and showcase the produce, dairy and protein on their menus. Additionally, many chefs embrace zero-waste practices and contract with Atlas Organics for commercial food-waste collection for compost.

Top 20 America's Favorite Cities for Food

Travel + Leisure

Furman University, a private liberal-arts school, calls Greenville home and Clemson University, the state's second largest university from a student-population perspective, is a mere thirty plus miles away.

Greener Greenville

In 2011, Greenville City Council established the Green Ribbon Advisory Committee to advise City Council and City staff on the development of programs and initiatives, including the development of a Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, to reduce the City's environmental impact and distinguish Greenville as a leader in sustainability efforts.

Downtown dual-stream
recycling bin

The Committee issued a comprehensive report, Greener Greenville: Goals, Strategies & Tasks in June 2018. The report focuses of four sustainability categories: Energy & Buildings, Mobility, Natural Systems, and Recycling & Waste Management.

Electrical vehicle-charging stations were installed in city-owned parking garages to encourage citizens to drive low-emission vehicles. There is no fee for the chargers other than the standard parking garage stipend.

Greenville uses dual-stream recycling for their downtown collection bins. ... and the recycling bins come complete with fine art compliments of the Metropolitan Arts Council and the City of Greenville.

Reedy Farms compost sign

Within the Recycling & Waste Management section, a priority is an assessment of the food-waste collection for compost options, commercial and residential. Tasks detailed include finding a site to pilot food-waste composting, increasing awareness on home composting, and setting-up a commercial food-waste composting pilot for downtown restaurants. 

Local urban farmers embrace the use of compost to build and restore their soils for growing healthy, organic produce.

Top 10 America's Greenest Cities (Greenville is #5)

Hertz.com

Urban Agriculture
In October 2018 Elemental Impact (Ei) along with Ei Strategic Ally Feed and Seed hosted the Ei Exploration of Fungi, Soil Health and World Hunger. During the final exploration session at the Clemson organic-student farm, Feed & Seed Chair Mary Hipp gave an overview of the amazing healthy food-school programs at the Greenville County Schools as well as up the road 20+ miles at the Spartanburg County Schools, District Six.

Inspired, Ei Founder Holly Elmore traveled to Greenville in May 2019 to meet the masterminds behind the healthy food-school programs and tour their respective operations. Mary was generous with her time, connections and spirit as she hosted Holly for two consecutive days of meetings and tours.

After the Greenville County School District meeting, tour, and lunch, Mary took Holly on tours of two prominent, impressive urban farms, Reedy River Farms and Horseshoe Farm.

Reedy River Farms

Reedy River Farms

In September 2015, George DuBose and Chris Miller started Reedy River Farms with the mission to provide the best vegetable produce to their community and the most talented chefs in Greenville.

Located on an acre plot less than a mile from downtown, Reedy River Farms makes efficient use of their land via a covered high tunnel along with open-air plots. Committed to organic practices, the farm is "cide-free" (pest, insect, herb, and fungi) and nurtures their soil with local Atlas Organics compost. With close proximity to downtown, Reedy River Farms minimizes transportation emissions.

Horseshoe Farm
Back in 2017, a prominent local chef asked Chris to help him start a chef's garden at his restaurant. Thus, Chris left Reedy River Farms and launched That Garden Guy (TGG) to educate in and facilitate the "grow-your-own" and "local-food" movement.

In his consulting practice, Chris partners with Feed & Seed to help farmers improve restaurant-specific varieties and practices to maximize those relationships.

Hand-harvested carrots at
Horseshoe Farm

Last year Greg McPhee, Chef Owner of The Anchorage, partnered with TGG on Horseshoe Farm, an urban farm that is chef-driven with what and when crops are planted. Beyond another source for organic, locally grown produce, their intent is to drive the next wave of chef | farmer relationships and expand the Upstate's regional food system.

“Mother nature is always difficult, but (with this) I’ll know exactly, in theory, what we have coming in, in what months and how we can plan the menu accordingly,” Greg said in the October 2018 Greenville News article, Anchorage chef and a farmer start a farm in a new approach to local food in Greenville.

Recently Chris was recognized as 2019 Urban Conservationist of the Year by the Greenville County Soil & Water Conservation District for his sustainable-agriculture work in urban areas.

The Holly Elmore Images FB album, Greenville, SC, is a pictorial recount of Holly's May Greenville visit with sections on the farm tours, school system meetings | tours as well as downtown | neighborhood scenes.

Greenville, #yeahthatgreenville, is a southern treasure and lives up to its tremendous accolades.