♪ [playful music] [handclaps] [loud handclap] ♪ [playful music] [handclaps] ♪ - Hola, I'm Leo.

Thank you for joining me for lunch.

Every day, food can be combined in so many ways to create delicious meals and snacks, whether it's breakfast in the kitchen, ♪ lunch in the school cafeteria, like me right now, or something to munch on at home.

La comida nos dan energía para jugar y aprender.

Para crecer fuertes y vivir sanos.

Y además es deliciosa!

Food gives us energy to play, learn, to grow strong, and live healthy.

Plus, it's tasty too!

It's so important that we eat a variety of healthy foods every day.

But have you ever wondered, where does the food we eat actually come from?

And how did it get here?

¿Aspensado de, dónde viena esta comida?

Well, that's exactly what we're here to find out.

I've decided to go on a quest, a food quest!

He decidido ir en la gran busqueda de comida!

To see just where this food is sourced and how it gets to our tray.

So join me, and let's discover who grew this crunchy lettuce for my salad?

How did this orange grow from a tree to my tray?

And how does milk go from a cow to a carton?

Ready?

Come on!

Let's go!

♪ From farms to greenhouses, dairies to lunch trays, let's uncover how food travels from the farm to you on The Great Food Quest.

[playful music] The first stop on our quest is San Andreas High School in Highland.

I hear they have a really cool way of growing lettuce and herbs.

Let's go check it out!

[light easygoing music] ♪ - Hi, Leo.

Welcome to our program.

Welcome to Growing Hope at San Andreas High School.

My name is Hector Magallanes.

I am an adult transition teacher here at San Andreas High School.

And welcome to our hydroponic lab.

- Tell me a little bit more about hydroponics.

What is hydroponics?

What does that mean?

- Hydroponics is essentially technological systems that don't use soil and just use water with an addition of nutrients, and they all revolve around a pump and its environment.

We grow it all in these systems here.

- So, no dirt is used at all when you-?

- No soil, no dirt.

It's all just water within that entire system, and we just modify the environment for those systems and we get to grow some of the amazing stuff that you see in here.

- [Leo] ¡Héctor nos explicó que con el cultivo hidropónico no es necesario usar tierra para cultivar lechuga, or 'lettuce.'

¡No se usa nada de tierra!

Se hace todo solamente con agua, bombas, y nutrientes!

- [Leo] So, your students.

How involved are they?

- Our students collaborate with each other.

We're sitting them down, we're showing them how to seed.

We're showing them the nutrient levels that need to be added.

We're showing them how to put the water in the systems.

- We work as a team.

One person checks the water level and the other person checks the nutrients.

Then after that, another person checks the lights and then the other person just checks the plants, how they're doing.

- I have a lot of friends here and I get to learn new skills.

- [Leo] Los estudiantes ayuda en cada paso del proceso.

Desde sembrar semillas, hasta la cosechas y distribución.

- Outside of lettuce, what else do you grow here?

- [Hector] So behind us, we have Swiss chard.

We have dill.

We have basil, cilantro, which our own nutrition services department is actually ordering from us aside from our lettuce.

- Wow.

- But we can grow pretty much whatever we want as long as we acclimate the environment to it.

- For those of us who are learning about nutrition, about hydroponics, about just where our food comes from, is there anything that you'd want us to know or take away from our visit here today?

- In a hydroponic environment, it grows 50% faster and it uses 90% less water.

- [Leo] Whoa!

90% less water than a garden with soil?

That's great for our environment!

Hidropónia utiliza un noventa por ciento menos de agua, que cultivando con tierra.

And it's a lot of work, too.

Deveras que se mucho trabajo.

These students really care for the plants in this lab.

Look at how the plants start out as these super tiny seeds!

I made sure to be extra careful when handling them.

Tengo que tener mucho cuidado al plantar estas semillitas.

Están tan chiquitas.

No puedo creer que estas cositas, vayan a crecer tanto.

- Well, this is such an amazing space and an amazing lab, but I hear you have something outside.

Can we check it out?

- Yeah, we do.

Let's go check it out.

I can't wait to show you.

- Awesome!

Let's go.

- Let's go.

♪ [playful music] ♪ - [Hector] Well, welcome to our greenhouse, Leo.

I'd like to introduce to you Mr.

Muro and Mr.

Hunter.

- Hey, how's it going, Leo?

- Hi.

- They have some amazing things to share with you today, so I'll leave you to it.

- This place is amazing!

I've never seen so much lechuga before!

♪ - Yeah!

We can grow about 4,000 heads of lettuce in here.

My name is Malcolm.

I'm the greenhouse manager.

Nice to meet you.

- Hi.

Welcome again, Leo.

And I'm Sergio.

I work alongside Hector.

I'm a co-teacher.

I work with the students.

- How is this space different than what we learned inside of the lab?

It's also hydroponic, but what's the difference between doing it out here versus inside of the lab?

- [Sergio] Different from the hydro lab, here, it's just focused on lettuce.

If you look around, the temperature's a little different, right?

Just like you guys learned in the hydro lab this area is enclosed.

If you could see, there is no soil.

Same hydroponic system, same concept.

We're using water with nutrients and it's just recycled.

So, the same numbers, like using 90% less water.

The growth rate for our lettuce that we grow here is about 50% faster.

- And you mentioned recycled water.

So, where's this water coming from?

- [Malcolm] Our tanks right here.

They have pumps inside of them and it's just basically rotating and recycling the water.

- [Leo] Al igual que en él laboratorio, este invernadero utiliza hidroponía.

No se usa tierra para cultivar; solo agua y nutrientes.

El agua se recicla mediante tanques y bombas.

La única diferencia entre lo que se cultiva en el laboratorio de hidroponía y aquí el invernadero.

Es que toda esta zona es dedicada exclusivamente a la lechuga.

Y no cultivan hierbas.

¡Y se ven tan verdes y deliciosas!

And to think, this lettuce started with such tiny seeds!

¡Es increíble que estas lechugas tan grandes y hermosas, crecieron de unas semillitas tan pequeñas!

♪ - This is just dedicated to our deliveries.

A lot of the lettuce here is featured in our school's burger bars and their salad bars.

- So, there's a chance that maybe some of us watching this episode today have had lettuce from this garden.

- Yeah, I hope.

- Yeah!

- And I hope you enjoyed it!

(laughter) - [Leo] I do enjoy lettuce!

It's fresh, crunchy, and, in fact, lettuce is the second most popular vegetable in the United States!

Lettuce has lots of water to help keep you hydrated, and it's a great source of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes healthy!

¡Me gusta la lechuga!

La lechuga ayuda a tus ojos a ver mejor, mantiene tu cuerpo fuerte, y te aporta agua para mantenerte hidratado.

What do your students actually do when they come in here?

- [Sergio] From seeding to harvesting, they're part of the whole process.

So today, in a little bit, you guys are going to see us in action 'cause we do have to make some deliveries later this week.

- I'm really excited about the harvesting.

So, if I was a student, if I was your student, what would I need to do to pass your class?

- To pass our class?

Honestly, just to be here, care about your job, care about working with others, understanding that what you're doing here is meaningful.

It's not only us that are learning, it's also, you know, we're giving back to the community.

A lot of the students here live in this community and we're, you know, pretty much not only touching our lives, but someone else's lives and their tables.

- [Leo] I really liked what Sergio said.

Everyone working here really cares about their community, and this is one way they can show it.

Esta gente se preocupa mucho por su comunidad.

Y cultivando y donando lechugas a las escuelas.

Es una manera de demostrar eso.

Now, let's check out what harvesting looks like!

¡Y ahora a la cosecha!

¡Seguro que va ser muy divertido!

So first, the students clean the area where the lettuce will go.

Primero, asegurar qué todo esté limpio.

And it's important to wear gloves so nobody gets any germs on the lettuce.

They help me sanitize my gloves so I could handle the lettuce, too!

Mira como me ayudaron a desinfectar mis guantes.

Next, I helped move one of the channels of lettuce onto the table.

¿Que fuerzas, verdad?

Then, it was time to cut the lettuce.

Y ahora cortar lechuga.

I had to make sure I was doing it just right.

And, thankfully, the students were amazing teachers.

This next step is really important.

We need to remove any wilted leaves off of the lettuce.

Tenemos que buscar y quitar las hojas marchitas a todas las lechugas.

¡Perfecto!

This lettuce is ready to get packed up.

Listar para empacar y mandar a las cafeterías.

Malcolm has a list in his computer to show how much lettuce goes to each school cafeteria.

El Señor Malcolm, asegura que cada escuela reciba su propia medida de lechugas.

After counting the lettuce, it's time to pack them up.

Las empacamos y están listas para ir.

They'll be heading to a cafeteria in this school district.

Maybe a student or a teacher there will have this in a sandwich or a salad.

And there you have it: The lettuce is harvested!

¡Estamos: lechuga cosechada!

[upbeat music] - [Hector] Thank you for visiting us, Leo, at the Growing Hope program here at San Andreas High School.

I appreciate you coming and learning about our environment.

I'd like to present you with a Quest badge.

This is a very special badge to take along your quest.

Take good care of it, man!

- Wow, thank you so much.

My very first Quest badge!

I'm gonna wear this proudly because I've learned so much from you and from Growing Hope.

You are all doing such amazing things.

So, next time I bite into a burger or have a salad, I'll definitely be thinking about Growing Hope.

- Thank you.

Can't wait to have you back!

- Thank you so much.

- Appreciate you.

- Thank you.

[upbeat music] ♪ Wow, that was incredible!

The Growing Hope hydroponics lab really taught me a lot about how lettuce and other plants can be grown indoors and without any soil.

That is so cool!

And now, we even know that the lettuce in your cafeteria might even come directly from this school.

That's amazing!

That's it for today.

Join me on the next stop of our quest!

[steady drumbeat] - [Leo] It's time for our Quest Quiz!

[drumroll] What is hydroponics?

[steady drumbeat] Is it A, growing plants in soil; B, growing plants in water with nutrients; or C, growing plants in sand?

[steady drumbeat] That's right!

It's B!

Hydroponics is growing plants in water with special nutrients that feed the plant as it grows.

♪ Okay, next question.

True or false?

Hydroponics uses LESS water than soil gardens.

♪ It's true!

Even though it looks like a lot of water is used in a hydroponics lab, it actually uses up to 90% less water than traditional soil gardens.

[jazzy percussion] [handclaps] Does lettuce grow slower or faster in hydroponics than in soil?

♪ Did you say "faster?"

You're right again!

Lettuce grows 50% faster in hydroponics than in the soil.

That's half the time!

So, we can grow a lot more lettuce to feed a lot more people.

That's awesome!

[drumbeat] [bright keyboard music] ♪ ♪ ♪