Laurie Farber wants your trash.
She isn’t just looking for old trash, she’s looking for compost. It’s the kind of waste that can infiltrate the soil with the rich nutrients needed to nourish the garden at Milton L. Olive Middle School in Wydanchi.
Waidanchi residents recently started soliciting donations of compost. Compost is organic waste such as leaves and food scraps that can be recycled as soil feed.
Farber, who heads the nonprofit environmental group Starflower Experience, said he helped a middle school start a vegetable garden in 2014, but it was demolished this summer due to its proximity to a renovated baseball field.
The garden has been relocated and the beds need to be rebuilt. School district officials did not respond to requests for comment on the project.
Faber, 68, began evaluating the need for rebuilding and came to the conclusion that more compost was needed. With the help of a high school student who works for her through the Suffolk County Department of Labor, she built a lidded box with two large buckets inside so she could drop the compost.
She and her teens roamed the neighborhood handing out flyers in English and Spanish asking for compost.
“We’ve been trying to get donations from our neighbors, but we need more,” said 15-year-old Abrianna Amador, one of the students.
Faber said he hopes to increase community outreach and can provide residents with individual kitchen bins to collect scraps. She also works with school kitchens to raise more donations and aims to get local businesses to donate food waste.
Collecting materials means you don’t have to buy them, reducing the need for water and artificial feed for your garden.
“Making our own is not only a good learning process, it’s good for us,” Farber said. “In addition to keeping food out of the waste stream, compost is what’s best for plants. It adds organic matter, it adds nutrients, it adds moisture.”
Already contributing to the composting effort is Karyn Kirschbaum, coordinator of Western Suffolk BOCES under the State’s Healthy Schools initiative.
She donated fallen leaves and garbage, but said she would continue because she feels the garden and composting efforts are valuable tools in teaching her students.
“Whether it’s collecting compost or understanding the science behind composting, there are a lot of great lessons to be learned from it,” Kirschbaum added.
Fifteen-year-old Christopher Turnier, who works with Ferber, said he learned the importance of gardening for sustainability. Bring money or transportation. ”
School board member Latesha Walker said Farber brought fruits and vegetables from her garden, which Farber calls “a tremendous asset.”
“Teaching young people agricultural techniques is important because they are not commonly found in areas full of black and brown people like ours unless they live on a farm,” she added.
Laurie Farber wants your trash.
She isn’t just looking for old trash, she’s looking for compost. It’s the kind of waste that can infiltrate the soil with the rich nutrients needed to nourish the garden at Milton L. Olive Middle School in Wydanchi.
Waidanchi residents recently started soliciting donations of compost. Compost is organic waste such as leaves and food scraps that can be recycled as soil feed.
Farber, who heads the nonprofit environmental group Starflower Experience, said he helped a middle school start a vegetable garden in 2014, but it was demolished this summer due to its proximity to a renovated baseball field.
The garden has been relocated and the beds need to be rebuilt. School district officials did not respond to requests for comment on the project.
Faber, 68, began evaluating the need for rebuilding and came to the conclusion that more compost was needed. With the help of a high school student who works for her through the Suffolk County Department of Labor, she built a lidded box with two large buckets inside so she could drop the compost.
She and her teens roamed the neighborhood handing out flyers in English and Spanish asking for compost.
“We’ve been trying to get donations from our neighbors, but we need more,” said 15-year-old Abrianna Amador, one of the students.
Faber said he hopes to increase community outreach and can provide residents with individual kitchen bins to collect scraps. She also works with school kitchens to raise more donations and aims to get local businesses to donate food waste.
Collecting materials means you don’t have to buy them, reducing your garden’s need for water and artificial feed.
“Making our own is not only a good learning process, it’s good for us,” Faber said. It’s the best thing for plants: add organic matter, add nutrients, add moisture.”
Already contributing to the composting effort is Karyn Kirschbaum, coordinator of Western Suffolk BOCES under the State’s Healthy Schools initiative.
She donated fallen leaves and garbage, but said she would continue because she feels the garden and composting efforts are valuable tools in teaching her students.
“Whether it’s collecting compost or understanding the science behind composting, there are a lot of great lessons to be learned from it,” Kirschbaum added.
Fifteen-year-old Christopher Turnier, who works with Ferber, said he learned the importance of gardening for sustainability. Bring money or transportation. ”
School board member Latesha Walker said Ferber brought fruits and vegetables from her garden — which she called a “tremendous asset” — to an earlier board meeting.
“Teaching young people farming techniques is important because they are not commonly found in areas full of black and brown people like ours unless they live on a farm,” she added. .