South Kent’s North Campus farm ‘a center of innovation’

SOUTH KENT — It’s standardized testing and exams season, and the South Kent School students are in the weeds — literally — of the budding agricultural program on the school’s North Campus farm.

Half of the North Campus spring crew was waylaid by academic constraints during a visit to the school’s redeveloping sustainable agriculture and culinary education facilities in the afternoon sunshine on the first of May. The four who came, though, were grateful for the chance to get outside and enjoy the physicality of farm labor.

Tenth-grader Gerd P., who joined the farm program for the spring term, said the hands-on work is a “great distraction” from the more bookish obligations of boarding school life. His mother is Indigenous Peruvian, from a family who farmed on the rockier, sandier mountain soils of the Andes. He said that he appreciates getting in touch with the land as a connection to his mother and his heritage.

Head of School Brian Sullivan said that those connections to the earth, to the body, and to the physical product of the students’ labor are sometimes difficult to cultivate in a traditional classroom setting. “We’re letting the boys get their hands dirty,” he said.

He noted that 2025 is a ripe year to experiment with alternative learning models. “There’s such an opportunity to rethink and re-envision” what an academic curriculum should look like, he said. “I whole-heartedly believe a high school education is so much more than just science and math.”

The North Campus farm was originally bought for the school 12 years ago by two anonymous alumni who helped spearhead and develop the facility and program as “a center of innovation,” said Sullivan.

After years of student-led growth, the farm was productive and even possessed some livestock, however the COVID-19 pandemic and administration changes in the school caused farm operations to fall by the wayside in the years after 2020, said North Campus Director and Assistant Dean of Students Richard Chavka.

Chavka has been with the farm since its inception and said he found a ready partner when Sullivan took over duties at the school in 2023. Chavka remembers speaking to Sullivan about the possibilities of the 128-acre plot of land that extends down to the northern shoreline of Hatch Pond. “We’re really sitting on a gold mine out here — why don’t we take another shot?” the two had wondered.

The crew, plus Chavka, Sullivan, Sullivan’s son and a dog named Tally-Ho, in front of the barn which houses the kitchen. Alec Linden

The rebuilding process is well underway, which Chavka said has been an exercise in problem solving and adaptation, largely led by the students themselves, which has been a boon to the operation because, in Chavka’s words, “these guys are pretty smart.” Chavka said that it’s important that the farm grows on its own — and the students’ — terms: “It’s going to grow organically, no pun intended” The operation is currently seeking an official organic designation from the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

Two greenhouses, which Sullivan and Chavka said were impenetrably choked with weeds a year before, are now clear and orderly. One of them houses a neat array of grow tables and raised beds — all student built — sporting sprouts and some healthy-looking carrot and spinach plants, irrigated by a drip-timed watering system that was also designed by the North Campus team.

Vignesh P., who has had some agricultural experience at home in India, said that his favorite part of the spring North Campus curriculum was actually building the tables and beds in the greenhouse. He enjoyed the tactility and clear sense of purpose the build brought, which school Director of Communications Sarah Chase said is a core motivation of the North Campus program.

“When students take charge, they’re not just managing a task—they’re collaborating, adapting, and creating something together that didn’t exist before,” she said. She explained that the core ethos of the farming and culinary instruction curriculum is for the students, by means of collaboration and leadership initiative, to learn “to do right by the land and by each other.”

“It’s amazing to see your labor get finished,” said George W., a 10th grader from Hong Kong whose urban upbringing was far removed from the food production industry.

George is transferring next year and is disappointed he won’t be able to participate in the North Campus’ “plow-to-plate” programming that will be ramping up next year. Besides growing and harvesting of food, the other half of the North Campus’ mission focuses on cooking it.

Hidden inside a formidable barn-like structure is a state-of-the-art industrial kitchen that will host classes and programs teaching South Kent students about culinary arts and the farm-to-table restaurant business. The school has been hosting Friday night culinary sessions where local chefs, school staff and other food-service professionals lead workshops for the students.

As crop growing scales up, produce picked just outside the door will be used in these sessions. Chavka eventually plans to start supplying the school dining hall, as well as local food banks. Having a service element “is really important” to the broader purpose of the North Campus as not just a school resource, but one that benefits the whole community.

While those goals are down the road, the farm already has had impacts on the crew of high-schoolers who spend every afternoon bringing it back to life. Nekhel M., an 11th grade member of the spring farm crew, said that the wholesome aspect of watching the growing process from seeding to sprouting has compelled him to think about pursuing food systems beyond the North Campus. “I might have my own farm when I get older,” he said.