US (NC): Greenhouse for veterans closes its doors

Late last year, the Salem VA Medical Center director stood before a room of veterans at a town hall meeting and confirmed the news creeping faster than English ivy: If the VA did not find someone to run the greenhouse, it would close within a year.

The commercial greenhouse supplied plants to the medical center and offered sales to the public with spring plantings, autumn mums and holiday poinsettias while offering a sheltered workplace for veterans healing from mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders.

Director Rebecca Stackhouse said the central office had issued marching orders to local medical centers that they were to help veterans find and hold competitive jobs in their communities instead of continuing to subsidize employment on their campuses.

“This means that there will be impacts to one of our long-standing resources that we have here at our medical center, and that is our greenhouse,” she said. Across the country, greenhouses, print shops and similar enterprises at Veterans Affairs campuses will no longer be supported by the VA.

Read more at The Roanoke Times