EXPANSION! The First 20 Days
The Windward Zero Waste School Hui for school year 2018/2019 now numbers FIVE: Ka’ohao, Ka’elepulu, Kainalu, Enchanted Lake Elementary School (ELES) and Kailua Intermediate School (KIS).
Much work was done over the summer at ELES and KIS to build out the infrastructure, compile equipment and supplies, and familiarize administration, kitchen, and custodial staff with the nature of the profound transformation about to take place on their campuses.
We were deeply disappointed that the anticipated funding for two additional staff members did not materialize. This meant that we would be perpetually short-handed and getting everything done every day would be very tough, but this team has grit: Coordinator Mindy Jaffe, Resource Recovery Specialist Jordan Nelson, two tireless RRS apprentices, Christy Tao and Augusto Decastro, joined from time to time by our Kupu intern, Cassandra Springer.
And tough it has been – quite challenging. KIS got a new principal, VP, and head custodian just a week before school started, none familiar with agreements made with the prior admin, so confusion was rampant. There was a break-in and robbery of several classrooms – our tools and cart were vandalized. The refrigerator at Ka’ohao broke down and has not been replaced, a major inconvenience that has added hours to each day. Tree trimmers discovered they can charge for mulch drops, so it has been close to impossible to get the free mulch we depend on for composting. I won’t bore you with the rest of the litany. Oh, yeah, and there was a hurricane…
Oh well, isn’t it just the usual bumps in the road, barriers, obstacles, resistance, surprises, and growing pains you expect when you go out there to move mountains? Confident in the power of the established Ka’ohao Protocol, we commenced at Ka’ohao on August 3 and the other schools on August 7. And we have been very busy! Below is a summary of our accomplishments for the first 20 days:
• On the first day of school. Ka’ohao kids were astonished to discover their front schoolyard had been transformed into a lush, green lawn! When the Zero Waste effort started back in 2014, the grounds were compacted dirt on sand – Ka’ohao’s assembly area looked like a prison yard. When it rained, the whole place became a mudflat. Over the past three years, 24 tons of mulch has been added to the area and spread out to decompose into a layer of organically-rich soil. Over the summer, the front assembly area was seeded and watered. By the first day of school, grass!!! Beautiful!
• In the first 20 days of school, Hui staff and Ka’ohao Zero Hero 6th graders collected and processed on site 13,266 pounds – 6.63 tons – of food waste at five Kailua campuses: Ka’ohao, Ka’elepulu, Kainalu, Enchanted Lake (ELES) and Kailua Intermediate (KIS). We have a total of 19 hot compost piles underway and 120 linear feet of active vermicompost beds packed with fat, robust, industrious composting worms at work.
• The big semi-annual worm bin harvest at Ka’ohao was completed with the able assistance of 2nd graders. Yield totaled 650 pounds of top-quality vermicast. Mr. Sawyer reserves 150 pounds to nourish Ka’ohao gardens, the Ag School farm, banana and papaya groves. Four hundred pounds was sold to Kokua Hawaii Foundation for distribution to 24 AINA in gardens throughout Oahu. The remaining 100 pounds was sold within days to local farmers and gardeners.
• Using the model long established at Ka’ohao, we added green waste composting operations at both Kainalu and KIS starting in August. No more green waste packed in plastic bags in the dumpsters!
• Three student hot compost harvests – two at Ka’elepulu and one at Ka’ohao, plus one adult Compost Club harvest – yielded sufficient compost to generously amend all the garden beds at Kainalu, Ka’ohao, Ka’elepulu and KIS in preparation for mid-September planting. We often get caught up in the thrill of raising revenue for our schools by selling compost, but our primary purpose is to provide our five campuses with all the soil amendments they need for gardens, landscaping, and soil science experiments. School gardens should be spectacular this season!
• Third graders completed their first AINA lesson on thermal – or hot – composting, presented by Ms. Jordan. The art and science of composting is 3rd-grade focus for the entire year at both Ka’ohao and Kainalu.
• Co-founder Matt Hong and staff from Banan Hawaii – https://www.bananbowls.com – visited the Ka’ohao campus. Banan provides copious banana peels to keep our worms fed during summer months. We applaud their eco-friendly business practices and love their product! They produced a video now circulating…. https://www.youtube.com/
• We welcomed Dana Brown representing Manoa Elementary and Ivie Bryant from Kaimuki Middle School to join us for a few days helping with the lunch catch, worm feeding and composting. Both are establishing resource recovery and garden programs at their campuses. We are also consulting with first-grade teacher Julie Venegas at St. Mark Lutheran School in Kaneohe to bring their worm system up to optimal capacity.
• State of Hawaii sustainability goals are posted and tracked at https://dashboard.hawaii.gov/
