Bellevue farm gets $100,000 to kickstart sustainability programming

Gifford Farm, an agricultural education center in Bellevue, will expand its lessons to include sustainability with a $103,446 grant to install solar panels.

Troy Glock, program manager for Educational Service Unit #3, which owns the farm, said it had around 22,000 visitors this past year. Most of the lessons and activities revolve around agricultural and animal science education with a hands-on emphasis.

“With our farm program, we try to let the kids get up close and touch and feel and smell our animals, to just have that experience, get up close and personal to the animals,” Glock said. “That goes for all of our programs.”

The farm has applied for the Greener Together grant with the Omaha Public Power District and United Way of the Midlands for a few years, and this year, it finally got it. The grant will go toward installing around 40 solar panels on the farm’s main building.

Other organizations that received grants this year included inCOMMON Housing Development and The Bay, both in Omaha.

Glock said this will help the farm save about 70% on electrical usage while also allowing it to expand its educational opportunities.

“We want to be able to educate them on how solar energy works,” Glock said. “We want to just show how it impacts our planet. We also want to just support sustainability.”

The panels will help save between $5,000 to $6,000 a year, which could amount to around $100,000 over 20 years. He said sustainability fits right in with the farm’s programming, especially with the need for good land and clean water.

“The biggest component would be just to inspire action,” Glock said. “Encourage our guests or students to think about renewable energy, to think about what role they could have in making our world a better place.”