Linda Breggen, Nashville Food Waste Initiative, Councilmember,Mina Johnson, Teena Cohen, Keep Westmeade Green, Diane Andrew, Urban Green Lab, Karen McIntyre, and Shellie Breunner WME, help students sort their waste. You can compost at home! follow this link and learn how then report your success.
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Westmeade's Waste AuditsWestmeade participated with Urban Green Lab & the WWF Food Audit in the spring of 2019. Two years earlier the participation in a food audit resulted in the students asking why we had to throw away the good food that they saw piled on the stage at the end of lunch. "Why can't we give it to the homeless?" After checking with the administration and getting a refrigerator donation from Home Depot we began collecting food. If a student had missed breakfast or had no money for lunch teachers arranged for them to come to the library and pick up some healthy food. The remainder went to the downtown mission. Because our students wanted to solve a problem and help hungry people we have diverted 10,000 lbs of of fruit, packaged sandwiches, milk, juice, yogurt, and other sealed foods that would have ended up in the landfill in just a little over two years.
After Urban Green Lab's WWF food waste audit in In 2019 we added composting to our efforts to not only alleviate food waste, but also to move our community to a zero waste posture. To understand more about composting here is a video to help you get started. andPipa Pig an Compost Buddies are links for kids. |
Urban Green LabIn the fall of 2018 a group of interested leaders met at Westmade to discuss how we could make composting a reality in Metro.
With the leadership of Vice Mayor Jim Shulman , a longtime advocate of environmental stewardship, Mina Johnson, our metro council member, Amy Frogge, our MNPS Board member and representatives from various organizations put together a plan which resulted in Kroger granting us enough money to get us through the rest of the year composting food waste. World Wildlife Fund
The WWF provided the framework for the food audit which made it possible for the Urban Green Lab to prepare the grant proposal to the Kroger foundation.
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Food Recovery 10,000 lbs Rescued in 2 1/2 years!
Thank You Kroger Foundation!Kroger Foundation funded a grant to pilot composting in three Metro schools. (Hill Middle, and Warner Elementary) We started composting our cafeteria waste in March 2019. The ultimate goal is to be a zero-waste facility, and with our existing diversion of good food to the Nashville Rescue mission, and our existing recycling program We have a chance to make this dream a reality.thanks to Kroger!
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Recycling Plastic BagsWestmeade works toward being a zero Waste School We divert food, have been improving our recycling. Metro Public Works provides programs and bins for us to use as we work to recycle! Big thanks to Metro Public Works and to Trunip Green Reuse for the help to get on track to further reduce our waste!
We are now working to recycle plastic bags and film. We are fast coming to the conclusion that plastic recycling is aspirational and not a solution! |
