Ag chief visits unique SR program
SLIPPERY ROCK — Nicolette Fenello, a Slippery Rock University junior, described on Monday her work at Growing Together Aquaponics to the state's secretary of agriculture, Russell Redding, who hung on her every word.
Fenello, a Seneca Valley graduate, is a member of Rock Life, a university program that provides a fully inclusive college experience to students with intellectual or other disabilities.
Fenello, who has Down syndrome, deftly explained the process of turning the waste of a large tank of tilapia into plant food that is cycled via tubes of water through the roots of racks and racks of lettuce and other edibles.
Redding was fascinated with the new method of providing locally sourced food to restaurants in the area.
Redding and others from the Department of Agriculture visited Growing Together Aquaponics on Monday as part of the department's Planting the Seed Tour.
The tour aims to engage and inform young people of the many education and career opportunities available in Pennsylvania agriculture.
The event was held at North Country Brewing Company's canning facility on Arrowhead Drive just west of the borough.
The university has partnered with North Country Brewing to produce lettuce, herbs and other greens to three local restaurants by growing them year-round in water fortified by the natural plant food created by the tilapias in a tank six feet away from the growing racks.
SRU professor Bob Aberhold initiated the partnership and oversees the operation, which he hopes will become a model for other universities.
The aquaponic operation has been set up in a corner of the canning facility since February, and Aberhold hopes to expand it.
One goal of the program is to employ young people with disabilities, so they can learn a skill that might provide a living in the adult world.
Marena Toth, an SRU graduate student who is Growing Together's project coordinator, said unemployment among adults with disabilities is higher than 60 percent. Those who are employed are mainly paid minimum wage, she said.
She said Fenello and Bailey Heaton, a student who also has Down syndrome, have learned such soft skills as reporting to work on time and what is expected in the workplace as well as the process of aquaponics at Growing Together.
“I write their tasks on a board and they come in and look at it and go to work,” Toth said.
She said North Country Brewing Company has hired a few of the students from Growing Together to work in its restaurant on Main Street.“It gives them an opportunity to be productive members of society,” Toth said.Fenello's dreams reach far beyond earning a paycheck or learning a skill. She most appreciates participating in a sustainable growing system that feeds people healthy food.“It's a passion thing,” she said as she leaned on the tilapia tank. “I always love to give back to the community.”She said hiring those with disabilities is as important as growing sustainable, local food year-round.“Having (people with disabilities) learn different fields and different aspects of going to work and learning different skills, like being on time for work and doing the work, is important,” Fenello said.In addition to aquaponics, Fenello's passion is teaching young children.“If I can apply the aquaponics to teaching kids somehow, I would love to do that,” Fenello said.At Growing Together, she feeds the fish, tends the plants and aquaponic system and performs any other tasks asked of her by Toth two days per week.Redding was not only impressed by the hydroponics model that Aberhold hopes to expand into a larger operation, but also the partnership between SRU and North Country Brewing Company.“North Country is doing with canning, brewing and agriculture a nice economic development program, but they are also bringing students together,” he said. “It's a great application.”Redding said that 75,000 agriculture jobs will become available in the next 10 years in Pennsylvania. He said the Planting the Seed Tour focuses on careers in agriculture and talking to universities, employers and chambers of commerce about those jobs.“There is not one single (agriculture) discussion that occurs that does not involve some workforce concerns,” he said.Aberhold told those in attendance on Monday that he hopes to next create a solar-powered aquaponic system on the roof of North Country Brewing's restaurant, where customers can select which herbs and other greens they want in their salads.
He hopes to expand the aquaponics operation from an experimental model to a full production model in the near future.“We are never happy with staying stagnant,” Aberhold said.He extolled the values of Fenello, who gave a short and powerful speech at the event.“Nic said, 'I don't want to live in my parents' basement. I want to go to college,'” Aberhold said as applause burst forth from all those at the event.Toth told the audience that Growing Together Aquaponics now has 11 high school and two college students working at the operation across three different programs.“When they're in this program, they're so engrossed,” Toth said. “They understand urban agriculture and the reason for it, and they understand the food and how healthy it can be and how quickly it can grow.”Bob McCafferty, owner of North Country Brewing Company, said he was happy to partner with the university for the project.“We saw the potential in our little town,” he said.McCafferty said aquaponic food requires no sun or weeding, grows food more quickly than in dirt and has no growing season.“I definitely want to see Growing Together grow farther,” McCafferty said. “We have 20-foot ceilings in here, so we could do 20-foot racks.”He said a few of the young people he has hired from Growing Together to work in his restaurant were offered better jobs than he could provide and moved on.Jondavid Longo, mayor of Slippery Rock, said he has heard those in agriculture talking about the unique aquaponics program when he has been out of town.“The program put Slippery Rock on the map,” Longo said. “It's a quaint, intimate community, so a person like the secretary of agriculture coming here lends credence to the success of this particular program.”He also appreciates the partnership and collaboration that served to create and sustain Growing Together.“I can't stress enough how impressed I am with this program,” Longo said. “They make my job easier in promoting Slippery Rock.”
