Vision

We have begun to divert food waste in our school from landfills to our composting area. We built an outdoor composter, and purchased composting buckets for several classroom and cafeteria areas. We also purchased a FoodCycler- an at home indoor food waste recycler. We have begun to collect food waste within our school and add it to our composter. Eventually we will use the compost to ammend the soils in our school vegetable gardens, which we will use to help feed staff and students.

Action

We placed composter bins, advertised on announcements and with posters, and had a challenge in the cafeteria with students. Student could toss their compostable materials into the new composter bins and win a prize. This raise awareness of what can be composted, and that the bins are available for student use.
We also created a regular collection schedule for classrooms within the building that do regular cooking (Hospitality, Food and Nutrition, Special Education classes, etc). This helps other students with awareness and gathers food wastes right from within our courses.

Reflection & Celebration

This is just the beginning of our project! We need to build a second composter for outdoors, and plan to continue to add composter buckets in the main hallways at school to encourage staff and students to reduce their food waste in landfills! The students gained a lot of knowledge, and the longer term of gaining nutrient-rich compost will help us grow healthy and fresh food for our students, staff and the community.