At Rancocas Valley Regional High School, learning goes far beyond sitting at a desk. When science teacher Michael Green first collected left over mushroom blocks from Mycopolitan Mushroom Co. in Philadelphia, he thought it’d be a great way for students to learn some hands-on environmental science around growing mushrooms.

Now, three years later, the Rancocas Valley school is cultivating 1,000 pounds of mushrooms each year—and partnering with local restaurants to use them.

Green teaches at RV PREP in Mt. Holly, a division of the main high school that offers alternative learning methods for students. He noticed online that Mycopolitan had extra mushroom blocks, which are essentially dense blocks of organic substrate that are designed to grow mushrooms.

“I reached out [to Mycopolitan] on a whim,” Green says, asking if he could take some blocks for teaching purposes. “They said yes, so I showed up with my truck on Christmas Eve three years ago, [and] we filled it up with mushroom blocks.” The blocks were taken to the school’s greenhouse, where the project began.

“We had 30 to 40 pounds of mushrooms,” Green says of the first cultivation. He realized he wanted to cultivate regularly, and before long Green and his students were selling the mushrooms to restaurants in the community—namely, Robin’s Nest Restaurant in Mt. Holly.

Not every kid likes mushrooms, but Green says all of his students are at least willing to try them.

“We’ll take a day out of the science-based curriculum to cook with [the mushrooms] in the classroom.” Green says. They book time in the school’s kitchen classroom, and Robin’s Nest owner Chef Robin Winzinger has even come to do a cooking demonstration. “Once we get cooking, and [the students] have a hand in some harvesting, and they choose what meal we’re gonna make, I can convince all my students to at least try them,” he adds. “I had a lot of students say, ‘I didn’t know I liked mushrooms.’”

Green has 35 students in his science program at RV PREP who help grow and cultivate the mushrooms, plus other students who help out through the school’s Environmental Club. On May 9, Rancocas Valley Regional High School is hosting an Earth Day Open House, where people can come see the mushroom project in full swing and learn about the process.

Rancocas Valley Regional High School, Mt. Holly
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