Foodchain: Lending a Helping Hand

Taken from the Foodchain Facebook Page

            Foodchain wasn’t my first option. It wasn’t even my second or third one. Foodchain came in fourth on my list of preferred places to volunteer. However, after much research through their website and social media pages, the organization seems like it will be extremely enjoyable. Before hearing of Foodchain, I had no clue what aquaponics was; the first time I heard the word I knew it had something to do with water but that was about it. Now, I know it is the process in which vegetable plants are placed over tanks rich with fish life. The plants thrive off of the nutrients created by the waste of the fish and the fish thrive in their tanks as well. One thing I found extremely interested was how Foodchain takes their aquaponics tanks to the next level by introducing smaller versions of their tanks into classrooms of schools all over Fayette County. The vegetables produced from these tanks are incorporated into the school lunches to help reduce food costs.

Taken from Foodchain website: www.foodchainlex.org

            Back inside of their location in Lexington, the vegetables grown are used by the restaurants that share the building with Foodchain. Their website says that “[Foodchain’s] success is dependent upon all of our neighbors, so that we are able to support each other and grow as symbiotically as possible” (Foodchainlex.org). Not only do they share their vegetables with their surrounding neighbors, but they also receive benefits from their neighbors as well. For example, the brewery housed next door gives Foodchain the grains that would normally be thrown away; these grains are used by Foodchain as a major component of their fish food.

            I am incredibly excited now to have some role to play in helping this organization. I recognize that anything helps, whether it is cleaning the fish tanks or leading tours of young students on a field trip. Anything that I do is going to be advantageous to the community and am excited to get the chance to have a part in that.