Greenhouse contract renewed

The Greenhouse Project will continue to operate at Carson High School through at least 2016, according to a contract approved Tuesday evening by the Carson City School Board.

“This is a wonderful program we want to maintain,” said Superintendent Richard Stokes. “I’m very pleased to consider the Carson City School District a partner with the Greenhouse Project.”

The greenhouse opened in 2010 after several years in planning and is a nonprofit corporation aimed at serving as a year-round source of locally grown produce and flowers for the Carson City.

Carson City Supervisor Karen Abowd, who spearheaded the project as a member of the Carson City Cultural Commission, said she is pleased with its progress.

“In looking over the goals we’d hoped we would achieve, we’ve achieved them all,” she said. “Now we are working on the sustainability aspect of it.”

Fruits and vegetables grown in the greenhouse are distributed throughout the community, stocking food pantries at Friends In Service Helping, the Salvation Army and the Ron Wood Family Resource Center.

Ten percent goes to the high school’s culinary arts program. Flowers also are grown and used in the baskets hung in the downtown Carson City corridor.

The greenhouse serves as a classroom for children from elementary school up, including special-education students as well as members of the newly formed Capitol FFA chapter at Carson High School.

Abowd said she hopes to see the program continue to grow with the support of the school district.

“The possibilities are out there,” she said. “Richard Stokes is very receptive. He grew up on a farm, he gets it.”

Lynnette Conrad, president of the school board, was eager to cast her vote.

“This is the neatest thing Carson City has,” she said. “Everybody benefits from it.”