MOUNT DESERT — Most people look at a greenhouse and see a place to grow flowers and food. Scott McFarland sees a place to grow minds.

The Mount Desert Elementary School (MDES) principal wants to build a greenhouse on the campus to be used as classroom and laboratory for a “food literacy” program he is starting called “Growing Vegetables, Growing Minds.”

It will be developed in partnership with College of the Atlantic (COA) in Bar Harbor.

“We want to provide inquiry-based, hands-on, multi-disciplinary instruction to really engage kids,” Mr. McFarland said.

For the past three years, MDES has maintained a small garden that provides greens and a few other items for the school’s cafeteria.

Mr. McFarland and COA president Darron Collins envision COA students teaching elementary school students in the MDES greenhouse.

Mr. McFarland has secured a $5,000 grant in each of the past two years from the Ehrhart Family Foundation, which he plans to use to build a small, temporary greenhouse.

The school also has received a $20,000 grant from the Stroud Fund of the Parish and St. Mary and St. Jude in Northeast Harbor.

Mr. McFarland said that money would be used to hire a part-time coordinator for the Growing Vegetables, Growing Mind program.

At the outset, though, the coordinator will need to devote significant time to writing applications for grants to pay for construction of a permanent greenhouse and expansion of the school’s gardens. The initial cost estimate for the greenhouse is about $50,000.

For more education news, pick up a copy of the Mount Desert Islander.