With school closures due to coronavirus, agriculture teachers in eastern Idaho are keeping their students’ greenhouses running despite a student labor shortage.

At Mackay Junior-Senior High School, flower and vegetable plugs ordered in November arrive several times a week. The ag students’ annual plant sale is scheduled in May to coincide with Mother’s Day.

“We’ve planted so many plugs we’ve lost count,” said Trent Van Leuven, agriscience teacher and FFA advisor, about himself and his student teacher, Amber Bucknell. “A few community volunteers and students have come in to help, too. Some days we get a shipment of 500 plugs and other days 2,000.”

Bucknell said dealing with the school closure and helping in the greenhouse “has been a unique challenge as a student teacher. What a great way for me to experience everything from the students’ perspective.” 

Like other teachers in the region, their work is crucial because spring plant sales help finance school agricultural programs year-round.

Shane Stevenson, a retired ag teacher in Meridian, urged readers of his Facebook page to support their local high school greenhouses, where vegetable starts and flowers have been thriving for months.

“Before you all go crazy and plant your own seeds, there is an ag teacher in your community who has probably started most everything you want,” Stevenson wrote. “Without school in session, the teachers are probably taking care of it on their own without help from students. Maybe, just maybe, you can help each other out and purchase the plants at their greenhouse.”

At Blackfoot High School, ag teacher and FFA advisor Kelsey Bender spends about three hours a day watering, fertilizing, transplanting plants and controlling pests.

“I’m usually here by myself,” she said. “Some students and community volunteers have offered to help, so when they can, I have one or two at a time come in. We work at opposite ends of the greenhouse and wipe the handles of sprinkling cans with bleach after we’re done.”

Blackfoot’s plant sale is earlier than others in the region.

“Our plants came in January and February, so students were able to get the greenhouse up and running,” she said.

Bender still plans to have a three-week plant sale starting April 23 and will modify it to a sidewalk sale. It is scheduled Thursdays and Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m.

“Buying flowers and vegetables is such a visual experience, so I’ll put sample trays of what we have outside the greenhouse on tables. People can pick what they want, and I’ll go back into the greenhouse to get them.”

This is Bender’s first year running the greenhouse and third year teaching.

“It’s been quite a unique experience,” she said, “but we’re managing. I feel so fortunate to be teaching agriculture and to be part of such a supportive community.”

Van Leuven said, “We appreciate community support and are hoping for the best. We’re planning to have the sale like usual.”