Cathedral showing it’s green thumb

A Hamilton high school is hoping to go green.

Cathedral High School was given a 50-thousand dollar grant to rebuild its greenhouse, so it can start growing its own fruits and vegetables. The project is a student effort.

Planting for the future.

Students at Cathedral high school in Hamilton are rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty.

The school was awarded a 50 thousand dollar grant from the Ministry of Education to help rebuild the school’s greenhouse and make the school more environmentally friendly.

Lena MacKenzie, student: “I’m excited that we are going to have plants, and that were trying to have a garden and make the school more green and eco friendly.”

The school’s greenhouse had gone unused for nearly five years.

Patricia Jordan, a hospitality teacher at the school thought the space could be a great learning tool for the students: “Show them how to grow locally, how to harvest maybe how to grow their own. We do live in the downtown core so to have this luxurious greenhouse is great for the kids to see how it happens.”

The school won’t be hiring any contractors to fix the greenhouse. Jordan says the work will be done by the students: “It’s 100 percent student driven, student design, I asked the students what they would like to see in it and it goes from there.”

The school plans to use the money to rebuild this greenhouse where they plan to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs that would be sold in the school’s cafeteria.”

Students will eventually be growing, cooking and even selling their fruits and vegetables.

Jordan hopes to grow a variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs.

While the greenhouse is still months away from being finished — students working on the project are already learning new skills.

I have never painted before, it was my first time painting and it was a good way to start.

Work on rebuilding the greenhouse began at the start of the school year. Tropical plants and flowers have been placed throughout the school. When the project wraps up — the school hopes to even create an outside classroom.

Derek Perz, teacher, Eco-team: “It’s a cross-circular approach. The wood working teacher is helping us building benches upstairs we can utilize on our outside patios. Have eco meetings outside, have classrooms outside.”

The school is traditional known for its blue and white school colours, but come January it’ll be known for an entirely different colour — green. That’s when teachers expect this greenhouse to be fully functional, serving both staff and students a healthy home grown meal.