The benefits of stormwater management are many, but at West Craven High School, the benefit is growth — of the vegetable variety.
Through an Environmental Enhancement Grant, Sound Rivers and West Craven High School partnered last year to build a cistern to collect rainwater, which was then used to water raised beds. The results are a bountiful garden of school-grown vegetables. It’s one more way Sound Rivers’ Environmental Projects Coordinator Clay Barber is making a difference — through practical, nature-based solutions and enthusiastic partners like West Craven’s agricultural educator and FFA advisor William Shaw.

Sound Rivers thanks the Bosch Community Foundation, Harold Bate Foundation and Craven Community Foundation for additional grants that brought the project to fruition.

BEFORE: Barber, Mitch Woodward, Area Specialized Agent, Watersheds and Water Quality with N.C. State Cooperative Extension, and Shaw completed the West Craven project last year: photos show the three working on the project and raised beds before they were installed.

AFTER: West Craven High School is now the home of healthy crops of vegetables, courtesy of collected rooftop rainwater.