Our local school started participating in the Go Green Initiative. One part of the program is composting, and our district decided to implement it throughout all grade levels.
–Aidan, Age 9
Cayuga Compost happens to be located just a few minutes away from the school in our small town in upstate New York. Co-owners Jim and Mary Proctor have 4 children in the Trumansburg School district. They’ve worked hard to get regional businesses and schools to compost: all of the Ithaca City Schools, Dryden School, Lansing Middle School, Trumansburg Schools, Ithaca College, TC3, Hobart William Smith College, area resturants, businesses and area bed and breakfasts send their compost to Cayuga Compost.
Mary helped the Elementary school start composting as a parent volunteer who “just happened to own a compost company.” For the first weeks of the composting effort, Mary Proctor worked with the elementary school’s head custodian, Molly Covert, to educate the students about composting. Each morning, the school’s announcements included information about the composting program. Parents volunteered during meal periods to assist the children while they were learning the routine. At first, there were very long lines and some teary faces while the kids were learning where to put each type of waste, but two months into the program the kids really got the hang of it. (more…)
I recently discovered a way to save on lunch meat. I have passed by the large, whole, fully-cooked, plain or maple-flavored boneless hams in the meat department many times before while shopping at our local Shur Save. It was simply too much for a meal unless extended family was coming to dinner! One time, for whatever reason, I viewed them as a significant cost savings in comparison to the deli meats. I did some quick calculations: the whole ham was priced at $2.99 per pound … the deli meat was $7.49 per pound … at two pounds of meat per week, we’d save $9 each week. That works out to $36 per month or almost $400 per year (assuming we have ham every day of course!) I wondered if I could have it sliced and freeze it.