For the first time in YEP! (Youth for the Environment and People) history, we ran two cohorts in the spring! Students from Bellingham High School and Ferndale High School spent ten weeks learning about food waste, leadership skills, advocacy tactics, and developing and implementing a final action project.
This spring’s theme was food waste, an issue that is pertinent and prevalent everywhere, as the students would learn. The first four weeks were jam packed with education on the topic. Students learned from guest speakers, including RE Sources’ own waste expert, Priscilla Brotherton, who spoke about the numerous places food waste comes from and ways to prevent it.
On a Saturday in March, both cohorts ventured to Cascade Compost and Soil, where we toured around the facility and learned about the process of composting at an industrial scale. The sights, sounds, and smells of the facility stuck with students, all of whom wanted to ensure they incorporated what they learned into their action projects.
Directly after the Cascade Compost and Soil outing we hopped over to Lautenbach Recycling Co’s new transfer station off of Bakerview Road. The team at Lautenbach showed us how recycling is sorted, what can and cannot be recycled, and the logistics of recycling in Whatcom County. Connecting these behind-the-scenes processes to students’ real-life experiences opened their eyes to the structural systems that are so often overlooked.
I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet other like minded people and be connected to members of our community taking action as well. — Bellingham YEP! Student
Our final field trip was at Bellingham School District’s Central Kitchen, where all of the district’s meals are made—mostly from scratch—with locally sourced ingredients.The staff limits organics waste at every step along the way of food production by composting paper towels used in the facility to mapping out how much food needs to be made per school and when it needs to be delivered in order to avoid spoilage. After our tour, Chelsea from Sustainable Connections gave us a quick presentation on Toward Zero Waste, a local campaign that focuses on reducing waste that ends up in landfills by educating the public on recycling and composting.
All of this established a solid understanding of food waste, enabling the students to move into the planning phase of their action project. While both cohorts had the same basis of knowledge on food waste, they decided to tackle projects in different directions. After all, interactions and issues related to food waste the students in Bellingham experience on a day to day basis is different then what the Ferndale students live.
It was a great experience. I learned a lot and got to use skills I wouldn’t have without this opportunity. — Ferndale YEP! Student
Bellingham Cohort: I’ll Take Food Waste for 500
While every school in the Bellingham School District has food plus bins and single family homes in Bellingham city limits are required to have food plus toters, multifamily homes—like apartments—are not required to have food plus toters. This led to some Bellingham YEP! students who live in apartment complexes being unsure of how to help reduce food waste by composting.
So, for their action project, the Bellingham YEP! cohort decided they would table at the Community Food Co-Op with a jeopardy game tailored to topics of food waste, composting, and recycling. On top of that, they made a landfill model demonstrating an environment that does not foster decomposition and handmade zines with information on how and where to compost if people do not have access to food plus bins. Despite the fact that most YEP! students had not tabled before, they perfected the artform of convincing strangers to consider changing their habits to reduce food waste within hours.
Ferndale Cohort: An Appeal to the School Board
On the other hand, Ferndale School District and the City of Ferndale do not utilize food plus bins. Any food waste that is produced in kitchens or by individuals gets thrown away and trucked to a landfill. When the Ferndale YEP! students learned that it takes 25 years for a head of lettuce to decompose in a landfill, compared to only two to three weeks in a compost bin, the students felt motivated to instill change, starting at their high school.
The students worked together to draft a speech explaining why composting is important—and why Ferndale High School should implement it. Three of the six students delivered the speech at the Ferndale School District Board Meeting, to a positive reception. Board members had questions, but expressed support in conversation with the superintendent and recommended a follow-up meeting with senior administrative faculty. (You can watch the students deliver their speech here, from 14:11 to 17:11.)
The Ferndale YEP! students did just this, meeting with the principal, the head of maintenance, and the child nutrition services operations manager to discuss the possibility of implementing food plus bins. The admin team shared that they are planning to phase out disposable trays and utensils and phase in reusable trays and silverware in addition to adding a few food plus bins—although just in the cafeteria area. However, the admin team was concerned about food waste and trash contamination. So, the Ferndale YEP! cohort created a video demonstrating what can and cannot be composted, which will be played throughout the school next school year to educate their peers on composting.
I am proud of what both cohorts accomplished over the course of 10 weeks. Not only did they inspire change in habits at an individual and school-wide level, each student learned leadership skills, decision making skills, and conflict resolution skills. Working together on a project that drives community action is no easy feat, and these students stepped up to the plate with gusto.