Rosie Noden decided that her children and their Kent, Ohio peers needed to become better connected to their food. To achieve that, she and other volunteers recently built a community and school garden at Walls Elementary.
Where the story gets even happier, though, is that the school will begin separating and composting food waste from its cafeteria next fall, er, school year.
Along with the garden, she said, the school will be starting to recycle its food waste from the lunch room into compost for the garden.
From the first day of school on Aug. 25, students will be taught how to separate the food waste from their lunch trays so that left over scraps can be turned into compost for the garden.
School gardens make all too much sense and, as the Edible Schoolyard folks know, and should have a major impact on how the children’ view food. Especially the healthy stuff that often elicits “Eeews.”
All the better that they’ll learn to compost, using the nutrients from their uneaten food items to help create new ones. Equally important, it’ll teach kids that food isn’t trash.
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