New system will save 95,000 gallons of water per year
HOUSTON – The Hope Farms team can collect and utilize rainwater to water the fields, wash vegetables, and to use during cooking classes, thanks to the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club.
The Recipe for Success Foundation has worked to combat childhood obesity since 2005. To help parents provide healthier food, the foundation created Hope Farms, a 7-acre Urban Agricultural Showcase and Training Center that grows produce in a Houston food desert while training and providing small-business incubation, co-op services and workforce readiness for U.S. veterans and others.
The new rainwater capture system will allow Hope Farms to save up to 95,000 gallons of water per year by taking advantage of Houston’s abundant rain, totaling about 50 inches annually. That’s enough water to fill about 20 tanker trucks.
Rainwater runoff collected from Hope Farms’ Gathering Barn roof into two barrels, each holding up to 2,500 gallons of water, goes through a three-stage filter system, including a carbon filter, which removes contaminants. Then, the water passes through an ultraviolet light that kills mold, viruses, and bacteria, and leaves the system as 100 percent potable. The filtered water is piped into washing stations and other facilities.
Any overflow will be collected in a catchment pond on the south side of the farm, helping to simulate the conditions of a wetland and attract wildlife.
“At Sun Club, our mission is to support organizations that make the world a better place,” said Mark Parsons, Green Mountain Energy vice president. “Recipe for Success achieves this not only by promoting healthier eating habits, but also by reducing the environmental impact of their operations.”
Since 2002, the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club has been empowering local communities and advancing sustainability. The Sun Club has donated nearly $11.7 million to 143 nonprofit organizations across Texas and the Northeast. Green Mountain Energy invites its customers and employees to contribute and support projects that promote renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource conservation, education and awareness, clean transportation, and sustainable agriculture.
The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club donated to Recipe for Success $55,000 for the rainwater capture system and more than $73,000 for a 26.95 kW solar array and a Tesla Powerwall battery.
“We are deeply grateful for Sun Club’s investment in our efforts to establish a self-sustaining, environmentally friendly, climate-positive operation at Hope Farms, where we already implement organic regenerative practices in growing local produce,” said Gracie Cavnar, Founder and CEO of Recipe for Success. “The rainwater capture and solar power systems will reduce the farm’s carbon footprint and take most operations completely off the grid.”
Since the farm’s inception in 2016, workers have practiced regenerative farming techniques, which means supporting a closed system of agriculture that re-utilizes all the farm’s resources to their maximum positive impact. This grant from Sun Club allows them to take that one monumental step further, while minimizing impact to the city’s waterways.
The Hope Farms team trains U.S. military veterans as agri-preneurs and incubates their new enterprises with the Hope Farms Co-op and Food Hub, which is designed to market, sell, promote, process, and distribute their products. Fueled by grants from UnitedHealthcare Foundation and the USDA, in collaboration with the University of Houston, Hope Farmer veteran trainees are paid a living stipend and receive a 2,000-hour formal curriculum of horticulture, financial literacy, accounting, banking, marketing and business planning to empower their efforts to establish their own farms.
“We are a vegetable farm, but we also are a large wildlife habitat that borders Sims Bayou,” Cavnar said. “Thoughtful water management is important, and this extensive capture and management system will ensure that the copious rainwater running off our barns and buildings will be redirected in the most productive way for both our everyday use and the best environmental impact on the land and habitat.”
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About Green Mountain Energy Sun Club
Green Mountain Energy is changing the way power is made and advancing sustainable communities through the work of the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club. Since its founding in 2002, the Sun Club® has donated more than $11 million to 143 nonprofit organizations across Texas and the Northeast. The Sun Club collaborates with nonprofit organizations on projects that focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and environmental stewardship. To learn more about Green Mountain Energy and the Sun Club or to apply for a Sun Club grant, visit greenmountain.com/sunclub.
About Recipe for Success Foundation
Since 2005, Recipe for Success Foundation has worked to combat childhood obesity by changing the way our children understand, appreciate and eat their food, and by educating and mobilizing the community to provide healthier diets for children. Its programs have empowered more than 50,000 youth with the knowledge and skills to make a lifetime of healthy eating decisions. Through efforts including the nationally offered Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™, www.eatitfoodadventures.org children’s learning website and Eat It! Food Adventures children’s cookbooks, the VegOut! 30 Ways in 30 Days Challenge (www.vegoutwithrfs.org) and Hope Farms in Houston Texas, the Foundation aims to make healthy food appealing and available to everyone with programs that teach, empower and inspire healthy eating. It works to establish healthy eating as the norm and to create a culture in which nutritious food is shared, appreciated and celebrated. Learn more at www.recipe4success.org.
About Hope Farms
Hope Farms is Recipe for Success Foundation’s 7-acre Urban Agricultural Showcase and Training Center that grows fresh, affordable produce in the midst of Houston “food desert” while training and providing small-business incubation, co-op services and workforce readiness for U.S. Veterans and others, preparing them to be urban agri-preneurs. The farm is also a healthy gathering place, offering regular cooking and gardening classes for children and adults, weekly produce deliveries to subscribers, a drive-through onsite market, pop-up produce markets in the community and public events that celebrate local food and the power of shared meals to build community. Hope Farms is a critical component in achieving Recipe for Success Foundation’s mission to mobilize the community to provide healthier diets for children. Learn more at www.HopeFarmsHTX.org.
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