Chelsea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette Copper Island Academy's farm-to-table garden space will soon be getting an upgrade through a $118,408 USDA Patrick Leahy grant it received in June.

CALUMET — Last month, Copper Island Academy was awarded a $118,408 a 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant from the Michigan Department of Education. The grant will be used to expand the hands-on gardening and culinary programs at the charter school.

Culinary Director Margaret Hanson said this grant benefits not only Copper Island students, but the community broadly.

“I want my students to live here, and stay here — selfishly. I want them to enjoy being in the Copper Country,” she said. “The farmer’s markets are booming. I want them to have those experiences. I want them to learn where they live and grow things and be here and contribute.”

According to Hanson, students at Copper Island have the opportunity to grow their own food and design their own school lunch menu. In addition to being a Culinary Instructor, Hanson also is a gardening expert.

“I have my own classroom and students see me as a special class,” she said. “We do everything from seed all the way to table, and the cultural pieces that go with eating together.”

This is the second Patrick Leahy grant Copper Island has received, Hanson said. It is no secret the Keweenaw Peninsula and the broader Copper Country has had a strong agricultural history. Hanson said this area’s history with farming and agriculture has not been forgotten.

“There’s a great historical museum in Lake Linden it does a really great job going through things like forestry and fishery. Things like that in our area that our students have no idea,” she said. “Getting kids that ability to do it themselves is part of this. It’s what the grant pays for.”

The Department of Education said in a release that Copper Island Academy will install year-round controlled-environment growing systems and outdoor permaculture zones, including edible landscaping, a layered food forest and a pollinator habitat.

Hanson said food-first community education is sprouting up all throughout the Keweenaw and beyond and Copper Island is only a part of the bigger picture.

“You can see this with Calumet. Which has a wonderful high school food program and now they’re doing a fifth-grade food program,” she said. “Houghton has a wonderful, thriving food program. When you get people who are wonderful collaborators, the benefits are through the roof.”