A veggie tale com-post
It’s a beautiful day, and I’m not at work, and if I was in my right mind, I would be outside continuously. But, I’m not in my right mind and I just got done hanging out my 5th load of laundry. So, taking a break from this decadent beauty, I bring you this com-post which I am very excited about…..
Reading the newest edition of Adirondack Life, I came upon this little didley (October 2008-sorry, no link available, but you can listen to an NPR article here.):
Nursery School
What began as a school composting project in 1995 has grown into an organic garden for the 164 students at Keene Central School. Julie Holbrook, Keene’s cafeteria manager, says using produce from the 2,250-square-foot plot provides substantial savings for the school. Teachers also incorporate the garden into lesson plans.
But Holbrook thinks the kids are learning something just as important: how much better food tastes when it’s pulled straight from the earth. Sometimes that lesson takes a little work (she admits to camouflaging Swiss chard in soups and sauces), but many students who have never known the sweetness of a fresh pea are becoming quick converts. “That’s my hope, ” says Holbrook, “that they all get the concept of growing and eating fresh vegetables.”
Then, through the modern miracle of “googling”, I discovered the origin of this:
Composting Case Studies : Keene Central School, Keene, N.Y.
In the spring of 1995, Keene Central School (KCS) students, faculty and staff began composting food scraps from their cafeteria. With the assistance of the Cornell Waste Management Institute, the scraps were successfully incorporated into the existing program to divert campus yard waste from landfill disposal. The school has been able to cut disposal costs, freeing up resources for other uses, while preventing valuable organics from ending up in a landfill. KCS has also developed meaningful ways to incorporate the compost project into learning experiences for their students. To date, they have diverted more than 6,080 pounds of food scraps.Bunny Goodwin, Compost Coordinator and parent volunteer, says the project was an easy sell to the school board, which was looking for ways to cut waste disposal costs. Since buying a pig was the only other option on the table at the time, composting the food scraps was the most logical solution!
Wow, what a great way of thinking outside the box! I see no reason this couldn’t be incorporated locally. Anyone know of any schools around here who have a similar program? Cost savings, fuel savings, composting, local growing and consuming and teaching the next generation to be stewards of the earth. An environmental maven’s dream.
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