CHESTERFIELD — In its first year, the Farm Lab in Chesterfield not only has produced more than $80,000 worth of produce using experimental methods of crop production that can help local growers, but that harvest has provided a community cornucopia over the past 12 weeks, while at the same time giving kids a head start on healthy habits.

In total, the farm situated next door to New Hingham Regional Elementary School contributed 2,400 boxes of produce to the school and Conte Community School in Pittsfield, as part of Farm Lab and Momentum Ag’s Feast Box program, with leftovers being donated to food pantries in the region. These crops were all grown on a single acre, but plans are in place to expand to three acres of cultivated space next growing season on the Lab’s 15-acre lot.

Every member of the New Hingham Elementary community, including teachers, staff and bus drivers, received a weekly box of four or five different vegetables, while after-school students at Conte also received boxes.

“I’ve never seen kids so excited about vegetables,” said New Hingham Elementary Principal Amanda Faro, adding that students taking home vegetables every week this school year has supported healthy eating habits, while they also have been able “to learn who the helpers in our community are.”

The final wave of boxes was distributed last week, and had been celebrated by elementary students as part of a Harvest Day at which they performed songs for their parents ahead of the holiday break.

The Farm Lab is a project of Momentum Ag. Momentum, a grant funded non-profit, coordinates environmentally aware agricultural systems on 20 farms throughout the Northeast, allowing innovative full-scale growing methods to be developed without infringing on the bottom line of farmers who may not have the resources or cannot take on the liability of new farming techniques. Momentum funds farmers for their time, helps plan and implement trials, and collects data.

“These are techniques studied at universities but the eco-benefits to them are not well understood, as well as the agronomics and management and how that affects a farm’s profitability,” said Lincoln Fishman, director of Momentum Ag, who was present at the school for Harvest Day alongside the director of the Farm Lab, Meghan Arquin.

Arquin said these technologies include alternatives to plowing fields with a focus on lessening the impact of erosion by utilizing smaller growing spaces. Anti-erosion experiments are beneficial “especially for us out here in the hilltowns,” where mountainous terrains makes erosion an increased threat. Experiments are also being done with crops planted in perennial clover living mulch to enhance nutrient exchange in the soil.

The Farm Lab was developed over the past year, with crops planted in July and August, and Fishman said collaboration with local schools is representative of Momentum’s desire of “having a positive footprint in the local community.”

“We wanted to make sure our farm is part of the community,” he said, adding that he hopes the Farm Lab, situated less than 100 yards from New Hingham Elementary, has a deeper integration with the school in the future and noted that if enough additional funding is secured, the Farm Lab is motivated to double the number of boxes donated next school year.

Funding for the nonprofit Farm Lab came primarily from private donations and from the Hilltown Community Development Corp., which funneled federal grant money totaling $25,000 from the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Grant towards the Farm Lab’s initiatives. Since funding through the grant will more than likely not be available next year, Fishman said the Farm Lab is seeking donations for the Feast Box program to continue in 2025.

The Feast Box program, said Fishman, “was very effective at putting fresh, healthy vegetables right into kids’ hands with an absolute minimum of administrative effort. We had wonderful, dedicated partners at both schools, and once the process was set up, box distribution was very smooth. So we didn’t waste time and money on meetings and emails and phone calls. Every donated dollar was focused on the outcome — filling boxes with delicious, healthy food.”

Siobhan O’Riordon is the mom of two boys at New Hingham Elementary school, and said she was able to use the vegetables for a variety of dishes: sweet potatoes for sweet potato fries, lettuce was for Caesar salad wraps, and a mix of others were used for beef stew.

“When it’s from your town, especially in a small town where the food is grown right down the street, and because it came from the school, it made the experience a lot more special,” she said.

Amy Hyde, who works in the school’s library and as a paraprofessional assistant, said that the past 12 weeks were “definitely a positive experience.”

“The kids would be so excited to take their food boxes home, and hopefully they tried some new vegetables. Sometimes I had a whole meal in a box. It’s a great example to show other communities,” she said.

Third grade student Lucca Rodney-Gage commented that while he enjoyed the vegetables, he noted that even the boxes the vegetables came in did not go to waste. While the vegetables “tasted really good,” he said, he also enjoyed making the boxes they were distributed in into “box hats.”

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.