It’s time for Page Two: News that might not make the front page for Thursday, November 20, 2025.
Wasilla High School science teacher Nikki Swager was stunned to learn that more than 95% of Alaska’s food is imported. So she decided to do something about it. She transformed the Intro to Plant Science course into a source of fresh produce for the Mat-Su Food Bank.
The 13-year teaching veteran and longtime gardener came to Wasilla High three years ago. She inherited a science classroom equipped with a solarium. That tool and her passion for gardening led to building a plant science program from the ground up.
Early on her students grew greens for “salad parties.” But everything shifted when she discovered how dependent Alaska is on food from Outside.
“It made me think, how can we grow more ourselves?’” she said.
Swager already had a relationship with Youth Agriculture Education Coordinator Alex Wilson at the Spring Creek Farm off Farm Loop Road in Palmer. Her students went on four working field trips to the farm. Donations from Alaska Conservation Foundation, Alaska Seeds of Change, and the Native Village of Eklutna funded the trips.
Swager noticed a remarkable difference when students harvested food for others rather than for themselves. They washed, sorted, and packed the produce with care she hadn’t seen during the salad parties. “They were so deliberate about keeping everything clean and intact,” she said.
Swager’s food bank connection began when Wilson received a call from the program director for Food for Kids at the Mat-Su Food Bank, Melissa Rigas. Rigas had been given a large supply of indoor gardening materials. She wondered if Wilson knew a teacher who could use them. He immediately thought of Swager. The equipment arrived at Wasilla High School. The relationship with the food bank began and the idea of growing produce for the community took root.
Students cultivate bib and black-seeded Simpson lettuce, kale, basil, arugula, and rainbow chard. These fast-growing, cool-weather crops are ideal for Alaska. Last week the classes delivered six 53-quart containers of fresh produce to the Mat-Su Food Bank.
Wasilla High is the only school in the district growing food for the food bank.
Swager’s course expanded from two sections of less than twenty students each last year to more than thirty students per section this year.
Students can now continue their horticulture studies with the new second-semester course, Greenhouse Production. The two semesters together equal one full year of Career and Technical Education (CTE) credit. They also give students a pathway into agricultural and environmental science.
Along with donations, Swager has secured almost $20,000 in grants from Carl Perkins, the USDA, and Nutrition Services Farm to Table. These funds paid for a hydroponic system, six raised beds built by Wasilla High School construction students, and additional materials to expand what her classes could grow.
Rigas never expected the original exchange of supplies to grow into a steady flow of fresh produce to the food bank. Food pantries “light up when they see the fresh vegetables,” she said. “Fresh produce is the best.”
The experience has been transformative for Swager. “It’s amazing to see high schoolers not only eat vegetables, but grow them for the community,” she said. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had teaching.”
The Borough Assembly rejected Ordinance 25-120 on Tuesday by a vote of 5-2. The ordinance would have prohibited the Assembly from adding to or altering the language in the Voter Information Guide produced by the Clerk’s office.
Emily Forstner interviews Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani on Valley Edition tomorrow at 5 p.m., repeating at noon on Saturday.
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That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Thursday, November 20, 2025.