News
Solar Panels Generate More Work Hours For Farm Nonprofit
Organization Transitions-Mental Health Association will save enough money to fund 22 additional client hours at its wholesale nursery
September 9, 2008 - The Tribune
One local nonprofit organization is banking on the sun's rays to help its program grow.
Transitions-Mental Health Association, which helps at-risk youth and disabled adults and seniors, recently installed a three-kilowatt solar system at its San Luis Obispo horticultural therapy farm.
The new panels, which power greenhouses, pump water and run a walk-in refrigerator, will bolster its alternative energy use and allow clients to tally 22 additional work hours, Transitions spokeswoman Hannah Brown said.
The benefits come from an approximately 60 percent savings on the farm's electricity bill, she added.
The hands-on digging, planting and other duties at the wholesale nursery, which supplies workers minimum-wage jobs, are designed to cultivate life skills for mentally disabled clients.
"They get real-world work experience ... and the therapy they need to stabilize their symptoms," Brown said.
There are about 30 clients employed at the local farm, and at least 60 clients who will staff it in a 12- month period, Brown added.
Proceeds of plant sales are put back into the workers' paychecks, Brown added. The 65,000 plants, most suitable for a Mediterranean climate zone, that are grown at the farm also supplement the program's $350,000 budget. The items from the nursery, which began as a small vegetable garden in 1984, are avail- able through the organization's Growing Grounds Downtown Store, at 956 Chorro St. in San Luis Obispo.
Four local companies donated funding and time to the recent installation of the solar system.
Pacific Gas&Electric Co. donated $5,000, which helped buy the panels through a discount program from Pacific Energy Co., a local clean-energy retailer. Wallace Group, a multidiscipline consulting firm, donated engineering, surveying and planning services. Thoma Electric donated conduit supplies and provided final electrical work by linking the panels to the farm and the local electric grid.
- Tonya Strickland