Southwest Open School Installs a Greenhouse That Supports Year-Long Growing

Access to locally grown food is a major barrier in Cortez, where residents have limited access to year-round gardening and food production facilities or education. With that in mind, staff at Needful Provision Inc., nonprofit specializing in food security, saw an opportunity to solve this problem when it donated a greenhouse to Southwest Open School in Cortez. To build that greenhouse, though, the school would need to install electric, gas, and water, in addition to acquiring building plans and other site materials, so SWOS staff reached out to LOR. LOR’s funding covered the cost of a contractor to oversee the greenhouse installation on campus, which will ultimately be a work-study and educational tool for high school students, as well as a year-round resource for Cortez farmers.