LYNDHURST – Fully equipped with a sink, cooktop, science lab, and hydroponic garden, the Mobile Food Lab is an extension of the STEM curriculum students are taught in the classroom. Kindergarten through eighth-grade students from all over the state will be working on hands-on programs on the bus, learning about where food comes from, how it grows, and how it impacts individuals.

This is the mobile food lab, a multi-sensory educational experience on wheels –

“We dreamed of bringing the science and cooking and art right to the schools and this is what this bus allows us to do,” Meadowlands Environment Center Director of Educational Activities Dr. Angela Cristini said. “There’s technology on the bus, we have a bioscope, plus they’ll be able to cook and I think that’s a really important way to get them to understand about how important food and food science is.”

Jill Nadison the CEO of Reed Next, a program for adults with autism looking for employment opportunities, is one of several partners working with the Mobile Food Lab. Although some of the adults with autism working on the bus will only be part-time, Nadison said it’s a special part of the Mobile Food Lab experience.

“Adults with autism will help to maintain the bus from taking care of it to cleaning it, taking inventory, all of the operational components which is really, really incredible,” Nadison said. “I think when you take a college and a program that is trying to do good in the world for people with autism and EcoSpaces that teaches kids such important choices about food it’s an amazing partnership and we’re so proud of this.”

After each day of STEM programs, the Mobile Food Lab needs to be restocked and cleaned.

The Mobile Food Lab will be visiting close to 30 school districts in 2018; the first stop is Garfield on Oct 3.

This article was reposted from FiOS 1 and the original link can be found here.