SCH Receives Green Schools Grant From Mayor Parker’s Office

Adding to the school’s decades-long history of environmental sustainability efforts, SCH was recently selected as a recipient of a Green Schools Grant from the City of Philadelphia!  

Philadelphia Recycling Program director Kyle J. Lewis hand-delivered the $1,500 check to the school to support the implementation and execution of a hydroponic garden in the Middle School cafeteria. SCH joins an elite group of 30 Philadelphia schools championing Mayor Cherelle Parker's vision for making Philadelphia the cleanest, greenest city. The funds will support the purchase of a Nutraponics Tower Shelf, which can support up to 72 plants.  

The SCH project hinges on a wonderful partnership between multiple groups within our community: SCH’s student-run chapter of Community Plate, a CEL project led by Judah Meyer ’26 and Damian Melzer-Surkan ’26; engineering students Logan Kirkpatrick ’26 and Leo Cohen ’26; Chef Budd who makes an ongoing effort to “green” our food services operation; director of facilities Ben West; and department chairs for Science and Robotics and Engineering, Scott Stein and Daniel Jacobs. In addition, CEL faculty member Julie Knutson has been instrumental in advancing this initiative as an extension of her Fulbright award that will have her studying cycles of food production and consumption in schools in Morocco in April.

SCH’s kitchens are working to minimize our campus’ environmental footprint. From donating surplus food to a local nonprofit to accelerating composting efforts, the Food Services team is spearheading several environmentally friendly practices that put our community at the vanguard of school sustainability initiatives and demonstrate our collective commitment to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Student engineers have also designed a prototype of a modular, vertical hydroponic garden. This network of 4” PVC pipes will house over 200 herbs and vegetable pods in various states of germination and growth.

These vertical gardens will serve as living-learning stations that will allow students to see innovation in practice and directly engage with food solutions for the future. 

The SCH team will be preparing for a visit from City officials to spotlight projects in process (or nearing completion) in early April and will join the other Green School awardees for a celebration in honor of Earth Day on April 22. The SCHout will be there to capture it all; stay tuned!

Image: Members of the Community Plate initiative are pictured here: juniors Damian Melzer-Surkan, Logan Landau, Judah Meyer, Leo Cohen, Aaron Jia, and Quinton McDonnell.