by Alicia Simpson
I noticed in my school an extreme waste of food each day. As a school of 2,500 or so students there is only one dining hall, but that is where most people eat on the weekdays and even weekends. As the system is set up right now, students return their plates to a conveyer belt, and the food is then thrown in the garbage by the kitchen staff. I intend to set-up a vermicomposting bin, behind the school, located next to the dumpsters. There is adequate shade in that area and it would only add an extra step to a student’s meal time to scrape the correct food scraps into a separate can for composting, which the staff can then take out daily along with the regular trash. The compost and compost tea that is produced can then be sold to local organic farmers, or even utilized by the school as a nutritional boost to our decorative flora on campus. Click here to read Alicia’s full action plan.