Project Grows barn construction kicks off

VERONA, Va. (WVIR) - A farm committed to improving the health of children in the Shenandoah Valley is getting a barn. It comes after 10 years of connecting kids to where their food comes from both in schools and at the farm.

It’s taken two years of planning and fundraising, but construction crews are getting the ground ready at Project Grows in Verona to begin work next week.

“Really since day one of Project Grows we’ve been working with really minimal infrastructure on the farm,” said Farm Operations Director Laura Faircloth.

The farm is getting a 3,000 square feet enclosed barn and a covered porch that’s half again that much. “It’s sort of like a cross between a barn, an office, and a house, and a garden processing store,” stated David Geiman, who’s on the Barn Committee.

It’s going up in two stages. “Stage one gets us functional, gives us the whole structure itself,” said Faircloth.

Project Grows will trade in its porta-potty for two bathrooms. Plus, they’ll be getting a food processing area, equipment storage, and an outdoor kitchen.

“It’ll enable us to just really expand both yeah, our programming for the kids, but also just hosting volunteers, and community events and just really open up what we’re able to do on the farm,” stated Faircloth.

“We’ll sort of do what it takes to get stage one done,” said Geiman.

Stage one is $200,000. The Geiman foundation is the key donor covering three-quarters of that cost and fundraising efforts will pay for the rest.

Project Grows is still fundraising for stage two, which will include office and meeting space, and finish things up.

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