Marcy Greenhut
Project Manager for Solid Waste Programs, City of Emeryville
- Emeryville
- United States
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2 Comments
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Re: Lunch Composting in Secondary Schools
2011-08-10 18:56:43 UTC
Everyone's got great ideas to share! I agree with many points made: it takes time, custodians as "tech advisor" is exactly what it is: without their advice, the program will likely fail.
I want to add that parents, while a great addition to the program, and a great help, cannot sustain the program. In fact, without someone PAID to keep the program running from year to year, continuity will suffer, and setbacks will occur. It should be assumed that it will take a few years before the program takes root, both at the school level, as well as the entire district level.
Further: It is important to always be thinking of NEXT year: plan this year how the program will be up and running with the next school year. Don't assume it will just start itself back up after summer. Feel free to ask questions, but this was my experience after 5 years in 16 schools. There's more, but I'll leave it there for now.
Marcy Greenhut
Project Manager for Solid Waste Programs
City of Emeryville
United States -
Re: Lunch Composting in Secondary Schools
2011-08-02 13:53:41 UTC
Hello everyone!
I didn't know this website and forum existed until I started receiving emails from folks telling me that Wanda Redic said 'hi'!
Having read your messages and the forum comments, I want to correct something Wanda said, before it goes too far.
Custodians did NOT provide lunch-time monitoring! (one exception was a particularly fastidious custodian at one school who couldn't bear thinking of the mess he assumed the children would make and he grabbed trays from students and disposed of discards properly. not much education going on there) The custodians actually resisted the program, citing their heavy workload, and I was careful to place no demands or expectations on the custodians to avoid their resistance.
What they were required to do was to dispose of the sorted materials into the correct outside bins. And even this was a struggle until they were provided with a FREE breakfast one summer morning.
Monitoring was part of programs at all 16 schools, but every school has it's own culture, which is important to recognize.
The key to success is a TEAM approach at each school and direction from the top down. I unfortunately was not paid to develop a curriculum, and the district was given this program by the City of Berkeley and had little invested. While the individuals I worked with were supportive, the district was a begrudging participant.
Marcy Greenhut
Project Manager for Solid Waste Programs
City of Emeryville
United States
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