Best of the Week 2021-2022: Teaching to the Future

ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB AND GARDEN CLUB VISIT COMPOSTING BUSINESS, SPARKING NEW IDEAS FOR ST. ED'S

This week, St. Ed's Garden Club and Environmental Club teamed up to visit Rust Belt Riders, a composting facility in Independence, Ohio with a warehouse downtown working with organizations across Northeast Ohio to provide them with a clean and timely alternative to landfills for their food waste. By diverting food from landfills, companies like Rust Belt Riders help support our food system through the creation of value-added agricultural products. Students learned that 40% of all food in the United States ends up in landfills while simultaneously one in five children, specifically in Cuyahoga County, are food insecure and that landfills are a giant contributor to global warming by producing methane gas. At Rust Belt Riders, students were shown how to turn food garbage into nutrient rich, organic soil.

"Rust Belt Riders has received national recognition for their organization and have inspired about 80 other like-minded organizations in the United States to compost hundreds of thousands of pounds of food that would have otherwise been thrown away," says Garden Club Moderator Lisa Hardin. "This experience for our students was a powerful statement about how following your heart and conscience can lead to economic success." Students are now inspired themselves and are talking about getting a food scrap composting project started at St. Edward High School.