Students at a local college are getting the most out what they have through sustainability.
For nearly 10 years, plans to reproduce biological systems have been in the works at Knox College.
Just recently, students invested in food production through the investment of high tunnel growing.
That’s according to Director of Campus Sustainability Initiatives Froggy Van Ryper who says high tunnel growing provides students access to grow food nearly year round.
Van Ryper tells WGIL’s Galesburg Live that an impressive amount of food has been collected thus far.
“The high tunnel enables us to extend our season for almost two months in both directions,” says Van Ryper. “This season, since the students have been on campus–this winter we pulled out about 150 pounds of different food stuffs. We had beats, we had carrots, spinach, kale, and various other salad greens. We put in an entire high tunnel full of tomatoes, and over the course of the season–pulled out 2,000 pounds from that growing structure.”
Van Ryper says there are various sizes, but high tunnels span around 30 by 50 to 30 by 100 ft. Tunnels are used for both education and to provide food for the campus.
