May 2013: Egg Harbor City Community School

              New Jersey School Brings HOGs to an Edible Classroom

“This is an awesome addition to our school garden!” exclaims Egg Harbor City Community School (EHCCS) principal Jack Griffith about the recent installation of two Rainwater HOG tanks.

image via Katie Sementa

Two 50 gallon tanks were installed in March 2013 to capture rainwater for EHCCS’s “edible classroom” – a school garden that students have filled with snow peas, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, beets, and peppers. One of the special education classes supplemented the veggies with a herb garden of basil, chives, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme that they maintain weekly.

Katie Sementa, Project Director of the 21st Century Community Learning Center – a federally funded program that partners with EHCCS to provide students in low income areas with before and after school care – was instrumental in bringing rainwater harvesting to the school.

She applied for and won a  $1,000 Water Works Grant from the Atlantic Care Foundation for the 4th through 8th graders attending EHCCS.

She explains, “I researched many different options for our school to conserve water and teach the children the importance of water harvesting.  While researching, I came across Rainwater HOG and thought it was an ideal system for our school district and our after school program.”

image via Katie Sementa

The students, who are already putting the HOGs to work watering their garden with rainwater, will maintain a record of how many gallons the two tanks collect in the eight months out of a year  (from April through early November) that they are in use.

Tree stump seats and tables for outdoor classroom accessibility will be arriving in time for garden bloom and harvest to spruce up an edible classroom that teaches health, wellness, and sustainability. More pictures to come!

The Whole HOG: May 2012

Water-centric Green Design News

“It’s all about how much room a school can give up on the playground. It was the design details of the HOGS that made a water catchment system possible for this school.”
-Kat Sawyer, San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance’s Tap the Sky

Kat Sawyer, Tap the Sky’s project manager, was instrumental in coordinating the 2010 installation at McKinley Elementary School. Seven HOG tanks, collecting rainwater to irrigate the school’s native garden, are virtually invisible underneath a boardwalk that has become a new play space for students.

Architecture for Humanity features HOG and the McKinley School install in their new book Design Like You Give a Damn [2]. We’re honored to be included in their compilation of people-friendly designs that create social change and make a positive impact around the world! Read more about the book in our B.U.G. Design section.

Read on to find out more about how HOGs maximize space and continue to nurture young sprouts, plants and children alike, in schools like the John J. Daly Elementary School in New York.

And closer to home, a LEED Platinum spec home designed by architect Geoffrey Butler demonstrates how seamlessly the HOG modular system integrates into a modern, environmentally-friendly California home design. Preview The Trickle-Up Effect in San Francisco Magazine.

HOG designer Sally Dominguez is adding to her laurels with a nomination from Advance 50 From the Future as an influential Australian innovator. Check it out here.