Tronox, a Henderson manufacturing plant, donated $2,000 to support the C.T. Sewell Elementary School student garden club. This donation will help purchase supplies for the garden, including soil and seedlings for various crops. Tronox employees will also lend a hand in constructing a vertical garden to maximize use of the space and yield more produce.
The C.T. Sewell garden club teaches students all the aspects of gardening, from planting to tending to harvesting. Students learn about ecology, water and life cycles as well as great gardening tricks to help their crops perform to their full potential. And all of their hard work is rewarded with fresh produce that they can then incorporate into meals to enjoy at home and at school.
This program also provides great opportunities to incorporate into regular curriculum, ranging from math and science to language and reading. Along with teacher advisors, Sewell Elementary partners with Green Our Planet which provides expert advice, curriculum and a chef-to-school program that brings a professional chef to school to show students how to incorporate their vegetables into tasty recipes.
“We’re so excited to sponsor Sewell’s garden program,” said Tommi Bryan, Tronox human resources director. “This program gives students such a wonderful opportunity to learn about sustainable resources and nutrition that anyone can incorporate at home. It’s a great, hands-on way for students to get outside and learn skills that will impact the rest of their lives.”
Students have begun planting and caring for this year’s winter crops, and will tend them through the upcoming months. Students will then have the opportunity to harvest their vegetables and hold a farmers market where the public is invited to purchase the produce, with sales benefitting the Sewell garden program.
“We’re always looking for ways to give back to our community,” said Bryan, “and this is such a great experience for these students. We hope that this will give more students the opportunity to get involved in the garden, try new foods and enhance their education at the same time.”
Tronox is a global leader in the mining, production, and marketing of inorganic minerals and chemicals, as well as producer of specialty chemicals including boron products and manganese oxide products. The Tronox electrolytic division is an emerging leader in manganese products, building on their position as the largest producer of electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) in the United States. Its product portfolio includes high-performance alkaline EMD, Li-EMD and custom treated EMD for use in lithium (Li) battery applications. Tronox has a long history of R&D production activity in the areas of Li and Li-ion battery materials, including lithium manganese oxide and lithium vanadium oxide.
