Eco-Extraordinaires September 2016

District 45 Composts!

In an effort to reduce their waste, Villa Park School District 45 is introducing commercial food scrap composting in all of their lunchrooms, prep-kitchens, and teachers lounges this school year. Diverting food scraps from the landfill not only saves space but reduces methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Composting is an eco-friendly alternative that converts nutrients from food scraps into nutrients for our soils. Yay District 45!

Naperville North High School Eco-Build

Naperville North High School has an exemplary school garden project. Their gardens were built in an interior courtyard of the school a few years ago with the help of many hands from all over the school. Teacher Jerry Kedziora worked with other teachers to involve students from the football team to the culinary arts program to special needs classrooms. More than 1/3 of the school’s students participated in the construction of the school garden. Now the food harvested from the garden is used in culinary classes and also donated to the food pantry. Now that’s a community garden!

This past year, they built a cool addition to their garden: an upcycled shed built out of pop bottles, complete with a roof, to house their gardening tools. Awesome job!