JSCC hosts ribbon cutting celebrating innovative partnership

WARSAW — July 29 marked a special milestone for James Sprunt Community College as approximately 100 guests including local, regional and state leadership gathered at JSCC’s WestPark Campus to celebrate the ribbon cutting ceremony of North Carolina community colleges’ first hydroponic smart farm container.

The Box-to-Bowl smart farm is the product of a partnership between Four County EMC, North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives, JSCC, and Duplin County supported by a grant from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund.

Thanks to this joint effort pioneering sustainable agriculture and local food production, students can learn about agriculture in a 320-square-foot smart farm that brings vertical gardening and hydroponic farming under one roof.

“This innovation is a testament to our commitment to advancing North Carolina’s farming sector and stimulating the minds of agricultural students,” said Don Gatton, Four County EMC CEO.

The climate-controlled environment of the Box-to-Bowl smart farm enables students to get hands-on experience growing local produce with soluble nutrients under the leadership of Katlyn R. Foy, JSCC agricultural instructor, and smart farm manager.

Since the spring, the Box-to-Bowl smart farm has produced lettuce, collards, mustard greens, cabbage, kale, and Swiss chard to name a few. Its self-sustainable tanks recirculate the water throughout the nursery and cultivation walls using an average of five gallons of water daily and producing crops up to seven times faster than traditional farming methods.

The ribbon cutting ceremony featured speeches from Duplin County Manager Bryan Miller; Dr. Jay Carraway, JSCC president; Don Gatton, Four County EMC chief executive officer; Mark Harrell, NC Tobacco Trust Fund, NC Representative Jimmy Dixon, Senator Brent Jackson followed by closing remarks by Renee Sutton, JSCC chief of staff.

For lunch participants enjoyed lettuce harvested from the smart farm, which was used to make turkey and chicken salad wraps.

After the ribbon cutting, Foy conducted tours of the smart farm. She shared that guests from various organizations have expressed interest in getting additional tours on the books.

“A lot of them were kind of just amazed. They had a lot of questions about the operations — how it works, what we do, what we can grow, what we do with the harvest,” said Foy. “I feel like there was a little bit of a shock factor there… they were just like, wow, this is really cool.”

Foy started her second Hydroponics – Growing Without Soil class for new students this week. Hydroponics part two will be offered Sept. 3 through Sept. 19, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. “We’re doing class one and class two almost every month,” Foy told Duplin Journal, adding that the classes feature small groups of five students each.

For more information about the smart farm, call JSCC at 910-659-6007.