15 years ago, Growing Food Growing Health was established by Nancy O’Connor with the goal of strengthening the community and empowering young people through a local garden at West Middle School with...

On Feb. 14, as part of an extensive budget cut, the Trump Administration directed numerous layoffs in the National Parks Service and US Forest Service. According to The Guardian, 3,400 U.S. Forest Service...

In 1947, the first hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, experiment took place in Grant County, KS. Since then, according to the Kansas Geological Survey, one million fracking wells have been drilled into...

Firebirds, Happy April! First, I want to thank you for taking the time to pick up the newspaper. This is one of the last issues I will work on as the editor-in-chief of The Free Press. I’ve spent...

Throughout the month of March, students and teachers across the country scrolled through TikTok and Instagram, met with numerous posts addressing concerns about the Willow Project. The Willow Project...

Gallons of water, miles of transportation, hours of labor and a variety of materials exhausted to manufacture one simple product– just to repeat the process all over again, creating an endless loop....

During April, 855 pounds of leftover lunch food from both public high schools were repurposed to feed the community through just one partnership. Starting in the fall of 2022, USD 497 looked locally to...

Handfuls of worms squirm throughout a plastic container full of compost in Julie Schwarting's science classroom. These squiggly workers break down waste from the cafeteria, turning it into nutrient-rich...