12/16/05 Students get greenhouses and spud grants

Farm and Ranch December 16, 2005 Five elementary schools in the greater Puget Sound area have been notified they have won a greenhouse from the International Greenhouse Company and a one-thousand dollar grant from the Washington State Potato Commission as part of the Kids are Growing competition. Karen Bonaudi, Potato Commission Assistant Executive Director, says this is the second year they have collaborated on the program which also includes KING5 TV. She says the Potato Commission grants help the schools implement the program. Bonaudi: "Sometimes they use that to actually hire staff to help them set up the greenhouse and the gardening program. Sometimes they buy supplies. And several schools last year put that thousand dollars towards a larger greenhouse." Bonaudi says Pure Potato in the Skagit Valley offers free potato seed to the schools to grow. She says the program is all part of the Commission's efforts to educate the public on potatoes, their nutrition, value to the state, and what it takes to grow them. Bonaudi: "The reason we do this program is because quite often students that are raised in urban areas live in apartments or live in areas where they don't have a home garden. And quite often they don't realize how their vegetables, their fruits, everything grows. They are just used to going to the store and getting it." The educational materials are available free to all schools and are on the web at www.potatoes.com That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow!. I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.