Thank you Paul Feiner, Supervisor of Greenburgh, for inviting Anna Giordano to be part of his monthly radio show at WVOX 1460 AM called the “Greenburgh Report”.
We discussed the School Lunch Recycling program in Westchester Schools, as well as the positives of Food waste composting. It was a wonderful experience.
New York City is showing America that it can be done. Children of 750 New York City public schools are learning source separation in their cafeterias. They will learn that “waste free starts with me” by being responsible for their lunchroom waste.
Way to go!
http://www.districtadministration.com/article/nyc-schools-kick-organic-waste-curb-composting
Eastchester’s Ann Hutchinson Elementary School has just been awarded the Green Ribbon Award.
This award acknowledges the school’s achievements in taking a comprehensive approach to green schools. The areas encompassed by the award include reduced environmental impact and costs, improved health and wellness, and effective environmental and sustainability education. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that The Anne Hutchinson School is a model of excellence and achievement in these Pillars for all other schools to follow.
Ann Hutch was commended for the school’s commitment to environmental stewardship, health, and sustainability and for inspiring our entire school community to aim high.
Dave O’Neil , the 5th grade teacher and driving force behind this wonderful program has been invited to celebrate Ann Hutch’s accomplishments during a n
ational recognition event on July 22nd, 2014 in Washington D.C.
This school is following the School lunch Recycling Program and thanks to Dave O’Neil has been showing off its remarkable success to other schools in Westchester. This school truly buzzes with green energy. We had several organized tours and many districts are inspired to also implement the program. Make no mistake, the students are fully in-charge of the program and the tour. Be prepared to have 4th or 5th grade students tell you all about saving the world, how and what to recycle, how and what to compost and what compost is all good for. If weather permits, one even gets to view the butterfly garden, adjacent to some of the compost bins.
The Ann Hutch Website has the following write up about the Award
“I would like to acknowledge and thank Dave O’Neil, fifth grade teacher for spearheading our initiative to recycle and compost, Vidya Bhat, reading specialist for co-writing the Green Ribbon Award Application, and John Condon for ensuring that our facility follows all the guidelines for energy efficiency. Most of all, I am grateful to the students and staff of the Anne Hutchinson school for working together to produce a sustainable and healthy school environment, ensuring the environmental literacy of all our graduates….it truly “takes a village”. “
Last night We Future Cycle had the opportunity to present the school lunch recycling program to the City Council of Yonkers.
http://view.earthchannel.com/PlayerController.aspx?&PGD=ynkny&eID=206
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in New York State with 24,000 students in 39 schools. All schools are using exclusively EPS (Styrofoam) disposable trays. Which means every school is producing depending on size between 15 – 30 bags of garbage per lunch.
Every. School. Every. Single. Day.
Councilman Michael Sabatino is trying to change that. He has proposed to eliminate all single use food Styrofoam items over the next two years. A wonderful proposal.
The School Lunch Recycling Program offered by We Future Cycle changes the way schools organize lunch. Instead of teaching the kids to “just throw it out”, students are taught to empty extra liquids into a bucket and sort their drink container, then students empty their left over food into the compost bucket and stack their tray. Simple. Continue reading Yonkers considering Styrofoam ban and School Lunch Recycling Program
Every lunchroom in the school district has left over food, but so far, this food has gone into the garbage. Always the same concerns against donating it to local soup kitchens were raised. Who would pick up? We are not allowed to donate tax payers money. What if someone gets sick, then we would get sued.
Melissa Passarelli, Principal of Webster Elementary School, shared with me that she found it particularly upsetting that left over milk on Friday, with a short date of Sunday, could not be donated on Friday to either afternoon program children or other agencies. Instead, that milk is being stored over the weekend, just to be thrown out on Monday.
I learned recently about a wonderful organization called
“RockandWrapitup.org”
This organization has recovered thousands of pounds of cooked, but unserved food, or short dated foods such as milk or bread before a school break to give to local agencies. They have an extensive network of vetted and accredited agencies that serve the needy.
In 2008 Public Law 110-247 was enacted to encourage food donation to non profit organizations that provide assistance to food insecure people in the US.
All Donors are protected from liability through the 1996 Bill Emmerson Good Samaritan Law 104-210, 110 Stat.3011)
I have shared this program with New Rochelle’s Superintendent Jeffrey Korostoff, who was immediately on board to see what needs to be done for our schools to connect into the system. Way to go!
Here is a great article by Topher Forhecz about New York City’s decision to eliminate Styrofoam trays and switch to round plates made of sugar cane byproduct, starting this fall. This initiative is “the first result of the Urban School Food Alliance –- comprised of Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, Orlando, Chicago and New York City — which formed in 2012 to boost the schools’ purchasing power in the private sector.” Read the full article here.
A very simple equation: what goes in, must come out.
This is valid for how New Rochelle’s schools are dealing with their garbage.
Here is a interesting article on how nationwide schools are the key to recycling and environmental awareness, but not all schools are equal in that regard.
http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/article/20130903/NEWS02/130829934/educ…
New Rochelle’s schools were until 2011 doing absolutely nothing in ways of recycling.
I started pushing the issue and with great pride I can say that we now have 5 schools actively source separating in the lunchrooms as well as more or less streaming the building waste. There are still many ways on how that can be improved and the students are the key to it all.
Education and hands on involvement is what is needed to -literally- bring the message home.
But nothing is more detrimental to a child than to see that no matter his effort to recycle, the custodian will just throw it all back together.
Education is the key, but the adult support is the lock. We cannot open the door to a more sustainable future with all its benefits without adult commitment.
I am calling for New Rochelle’s schools to increase its environmental education and I am calling for Buildings and Grounds to actually live up to Mr Quinn’s recycling mandate.
These are my remarks at last nights BOE meeting. I want to thank President Lacher for welcoming me so warmly to the microphone.
Dear Board,
My name is Anna Giordano. I want to start out by congratulating you to the appointment of John Barnes and Melissa Passarelli as principals. Those are great people and I am sure ALMS and Webster are thriving with them.
Last week I got from you a call on my home phone, a call on my cell phone, a text on my cell phone and an email to inform me that school is about to start again. I think it is wonderful that you have embraced the technology to that extend.
I was actually blown away to hear today to what extend you are embracing new technologies and you seem to have a fabulous driver for this in this teacher who just got tenure.
Way to go!
So, how about we embrace environmental sustainability with the same vigor.
Last week, I got these two mailings. One was from Webster school. It contained 4 full sheets of single page printed documents, plus two half. It all came in a 6×9 envelope, costing 66 cents to mail.
Mr Quinn said during the budget discussions that he found a way to save $200,000 for printing. It looks like we overlooked this opportunity here. Here we could be saving 85% of the cost associated with this mailing by embracing double page printing, using normal envelopes and normal 46c letter stamps. Continue reading New Rochelle Schools Need A Driver to make Environmental Change happen
New Rochelle’s schools are producing a large amount of Garbage every day, this is not new to readers of my blog. That this garbage costs us tax payers dearly is also not new.
I proposed to the schools in order to curb waste of milk and to reduce garbage that we should institute dispensers and re-usable cups. The Foodservice Consultant told me that it could not be done easily but that she is looking into the feasibility.
That would be a wonderful step in the right direction. Right now, New Rochelle generates around 6000 cartons per day, and especially the elementary schools have a milk waste of close to 50%.
http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/article/20130917/NEWS01/130919963/thre… Continue reading Some Schools are Ditching Milk Cartons for Milk Dispenser
I shared this at the New Rochelle Board of Education Meeting on February 4th, 2014
Dear Board,
I wanted to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Dr Korostoff.
Ever since he took the helm of this school district, he has been incredibly supportive of recycling. He, as an educator, immediately understood that for children to learn to respect Earth and its resources is as important as reading and writing. As a matter of fact, it is actually called “Environmental Literacy”. That is what I want New Rochelle students to become: environmentally literate. And with that knowledge change will come to our communities. But it has to start in the schools and schools have to be the good example.
For a school to be a good example means to eliminate disposables that are used in the school, which brings me back to these dreaded Styrofoam trays, these awful plastic spork packages and other single serve packaging currently used in the schools.
You have heard from me plenty of times why Styrofoam trays are bad for the children, bad for the environment and bad for the bottom line. You have mostly gravely nodded your head in approval or maybe just out of good manners. However, the banning of Styrofoam from New Rochelle’s lunchrooms is in your hands and your hands alone. Continue reading Styrofoam Used in New Rochelle’s Lunchroom Classified as ” reasonably anticipated human carcinogen” by US Department of Health
We Future Cycle 