The Compost Caf. Project
Location
By creating a composting program, Green Teens will turn the cafeteria, into a place where lunch will give back to the school (physically and financially).
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Field of Work
environment
If Field of Work is “other” please define in 1-2 words below
Year project started (or projected start date) (yyyy)
2008
YouTube Upload
Project URL (or link to any media coverage)
What is the primary problem your venture is trying to address and how are you addressing it (or planning to address it)?
The E. O. Smith High School Cafeteria, along with cafeterias across the country, produces a surplus of food waste. Excluding food preparation scraps, over 50 pounds of leftover food can be found in garbage bins at the end of each day. All of this is regularly trucked away to be incinerated. The school prides itself in being an environmental leader, but the Styrofoam cups, bowls, and plates are hurting Mother Nature rather than helping her. Packages of plastic forks, spoons, and knives are opened daily, only to be used on one bagel. The Compost Caf. Project aims to create an environmental model out of the E. O. Smith Cafeteria; together we can make every lunch eco-friendly.
Name Your Project
The Compost Caf. Project
Describe Your Idea
By creating a composting program, Green Teens will turn the cafeteria, into a place where lunch will give back to the school (physically and financially).
Innovation
Project Description
By creating a composting program, Green Teens will turn the cafeteria, into a place where lunch will give back to the school (physically and financially).
Unique and different
The E. O. Smith High School was not built to re-use. By stepping out of the box, we plan on changing this by altering the way our cafeteria operates in order to re-use. This process will not only benefit the cafeteria, but other school departments as well. Instead of just replacing plastic with potato starch, we will convert all that is possible to metal. By making all aspects of school lunches compostable or reusable, we will be generating more recyclable waste material than garbage. The school will save money and benefit from lunch waste, and we will get the student body excited about making the transition. Instead of just fixing a problem, we are creating a whole new cycle where we can use waste to our advantage and then using it as a model for other schools.
Project plan
The Compost Caf. Project will construct a compost pile at the school’s Land-Lab. The group will set up air-tight containers to collect excess food preparation waste from the cafeteria. We will set up a schedule to have the bins driven to the compost pile. Here it will be mixed with excess waste from the Agriculture Department. Each lunch wave will join by placing leftover food scraps into bins too. Finally, Green Teens will help set up a program to purchase reusable and compostable lunch ware.
Partnerships
A successful partnership, although it is not “official”, is with the Fair Haven PeaceJam. Fair Haven PeaceJam is another youth organization with very similar goals to Green Teens. One of our members, Claire Murtha-Paradis, is in fact involved with Fair Haven PeaceJam. We often bounce ideas off each other in order to spread our impact throughout Connecticut (since Fair Haven is located on the opposite side of the state). One of the most successful ideas that we have shared with Fair Haven PeaceJam is the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb exchange. It was originally PeaceJam’s idea and Green Teens tweaked it to educate the community about the energy and money saved when switching over from the standard incandescent bulbs to the CFLs. Green Teens is also talking with the LA Climate Action Club, another Youth Venture in hopes to create another environmental partnership. Together we will work to reduce the use of plastic bags in our communities.
Impact
Impact
The Compost Caf. Project will hopefully have reached 1,100 students and their families by the end of 2008, all participants will benefit from the project by choosing to help compost now and enjoy the rewards later; students will also learn about the importance of re-using through The Compost Caf. Project.
Effectiveness
Green Teens has served approximately two thousand people so far (students, community members, etc). Anyone who participates in our innovation will benefit, it will help them learn to lead a greener lifestyle and therefore a cleaner, fuller life.
How do you engage and impact the community?
The Agriculture department is very prominent in both our school and our community, selling trees, flowers, soil, and other agricultural needs. By mentioning the soil is from a school-wide compost, support for the initiative will be gained. The spread of this project to other area schools will have a profound impact on the area as well. If parents see that their child’s school is choosing to become environmentally friendly, then home prepared lunches will also become “green”. Green Teens will electronically send out letters asking parents to switch from plastic baggies to reusable containers, and will provide directions as to how to easily create ones very own compost. In spreading our environmental message to the community, utilizing the compost as an educational tool is key.
How do you measure this impact?
It will be quite easy to measure the impact of The Compost Caf. Project in the school. Once all phases of the project are complete, as time goes on, the volume of waste in the compost bins shall increase. Initially, a sampling of students will participate, but as the project becomes a prominent aspect of school life—so should our compost pile. The successful spread of The Compost Caf. Project to other schools will also be a means of measuring its impact. Multiple compost bins in multiple schools will not only grow the amount of waste being recycled, but will also spread the concept of composting to the families of students in those schools.
Obstacles
The biggest obstacle for us is student participation. If we cannot get the students to take an active role in our project, then the project will not go anywhere. Another obstacle is getting permission from the administration. Though the administration approves of the project thus far, if they view any aspect of the project as problematic, we will not be able to continue with our intended plan. Finally, we will need to find ways to motivate other schools to undertake The Compost Caf. Project.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
Financing source
(or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)
The great thing about starting a compost system is that once it is set up, it can be maintained at a very minimal cost. Green Teens currently has over $600, and while we are certainly able to spend some of these funds to help start our project, we realize that we will need additional funding. Currently, we are searching for grants to help cover the initial cost of the compost system, biodegradable cups and bowls, and reusable forks, knives and spoons. We plan on utilizing fundraisers and events to help cover the cost, and will ask for donations both from the community and from companies whom we will be working. We are confident that after these initial expenses our project will be sustainable with minimal external funding. Leftover money (designated for The Composing Caf. Project) will be used to help other schools initiate the program.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and sustain your project?
Sustaining The Compost Caf. Project will not be very difficult once students begin to reap the benefits and see how simple the composting process is. Originally, the project will be sustained through community involvement. We will need volunteers to help with transportation, however eventually we will establish a concrete transportation system involving both students and staff (the compost bins will be several small air tight containers, making transportation rather easy). Once the compost is built, there will be fairly little maintenance involved; we will recruit students to help “turn” the material as needed. As more students enter the high school and learn that composting is a “norm” in the cafeteria the initiative will become first nature. Metal lunch ware will eventually need to be replaced with financial aid from the school. The biodegradable supplies will be purchased regularly, as plastic ware is now, making the switch fairly simple. The project will grow through Green Teens, education efforts, and word of mouth. After the project is successfully established, the group will help other schools start and sustain their own Composting Caf. Project.
Finance details
Green Teens is completing the planning phase of the project. Our goal is to get started with the compost portion of the project during the month of November. The group has not begun to raise money for the actual purchase of materials yet, but will do so through sales, raffles, and grant writing (as described in creative funding). We estimate that the cost of actually building the compost pile and purchasing the bins should be no more than $300; the main expense will be the purchase of metal and biodegradable lunch ware. There are currently 10 dedicated members of Green Teens, but once the project has a strong footing, we plan on recruiting more members. The school’s “Cool- It Team” also has expressed interest in helping Green Teens establish the compost bin, doubling the size of actively involved members.
Creative funding
Green Teens has held fundraisers that benefit both the community and our club. We have sold cloth shopping bags and compact fluorescent light bulbs at events and in local businesses. Money can be raised for merchandise by allowing companies to purchase logo space. By holding community-wide events such as workshops and presentations, Green Teens can also ask for donations. Within a year of receiving the initial $1,000 grant from Youth Venture, we had earned back all of the money that we’d spent.
Other non finance needs
Initially, students will be able to use cars to move the compost, however eventually we may need to use the trailer offered by the school. Volunteers will be needed to turn the compost. Finally, the most important aspect of The Compost Caf. Project is school-wide participation. The club will encourage students and staff to use the compost bins. Eventually, students should think to use these before the garbage can, but seeing as the concept will be very new—this may take time.
The Story
Motivation
One defining moment for Green Teens and The Compost Caf. Project was when we found out that our school actually burns most of its garbage. The group initially aimed to replace just Styrofoam with biodegradable materials, but learned that this will have little benefit due to the process of incineration. The group also learned that an area elementary school has been composting for a number of years, and with great success. The school even sells some of the soil to parents as a fund raiser. Green Teens realized that we could eliminate a lot of our school's waste in a productive way, creating new, nutritious soil for the use of our school's agriculture department. Though, unlike the elementary schools in the area, the school was not built to wash or reuse much of anything, Green Teens realized that with a little creativity this could be changed fairly easily. The school agreed to wash flatware and bowls as long as Green Teens helped provide them. Once the group found an approved location for a compost bin, we realized The Compost Caf. Project could easily succeed in the E. O. Smith High School environment.
Awards
Green Teens was recognized in early 2007 with a $1,000 start-up grant from Youth Venture. We are recognized as an official club by our school and have even a spot in the Year Book. In addition to these achievements, one of our core members, Jessie Mehrhoff, has been selected to be a Youth Venture Ambassador. Jessie will be serving as a member of the 2008 Y-Pulse Youth Marketing Mashup panel at Boston University to talk about the success of Green Teens and youth environmentalism.
Broader context
We believe that starting a composting program to our school would not only make our school more environmentally friendly, but it would also establish an environmental ethic in the minds of peers. By accomplishing this project, we hope that not only will our school be a “greener” place, but we will inspire others to start socially or environmentally conscious projects of their own. The Compost Caf. Project will get media and word-of-mouth attention, showing youth that when they spot something they know should be changed no matter what roadblocks they hit, there are ways to achieve their goals. To help jump-start this, using leftover funds from The Compost Caf. Project, Green Teens will find other environmental groups in schools and help them kick-off similar projects. By doing so, a chain reaction effect will be generated, leading to positive change in many forms.
Ongoing
Though eventually Green Teens will have to be passed on to younger E. O. Smith Students, the project will continue to grow throughout our members lives. Initiatives similar to The Compost Caf. Project can begin at the University level. Members of Green Teens will continue working with schools to implement environmentally conscious projects in order to push environmental awareness through education. As school-wide composting becomes more common, members of Green Teens will be able to take our project ideas to the next level and solve several other environmental problems both in the schools and community.
What is your age?
16
How did you hear about this competition?
Green Teens members, Jessie Mehrhoff and Avital Lassow first heard about this competition at the 2008 Youth Venture Summit in Washington, D.C. this summer. The conference stressed that all ventures with a new or ongoing project idea enter the competition because not only could they benefit financially, but would gain experience in grant writing and competition entry. Jessie also got to meet with several representatives from Changemakers.Net (along with other Ambassadors) to discuss the website and competition!
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