Our Program Is At Risk Of Shutting Down

HB2025 was signed into law on July 2018. The law signed by Governor Ige, provided $300,000 for schools, organizations or the DOE to set up composting and other “zero waste” programs at public schools.

Windward Zero Waste School Hui was one of many organizations that collaborated on the language of the bill and spent two years lobbying the Legislature to dedicate money to zero waste programs. Over two thousand and five testimonies were given to Sylvia Luke, Chairman of House Finance Committee, by schoolchildren aged 5-12, staff, and faculty of the five hui schools were delivered. Students gave live testimonies in support of HB2025 to reaffirm their beliefs in caring for the ‘aina in which they will someday inherit and lead.

Over this past summer, Mindy Jaffe, the program director for Windward Zero Waste Hui, worked with our partner schools and their principals to complete an application given by the DOE to access the funds.

But after Claire Caulfield  from Civil Beat did some digging, she uncovered that the DOE signed a contract with Okahara and Associates Inc., an engineering firm, to “assist in establishing the framework for a composting pilot program and campus composting guidelines,” and that the $285,000 contract was signed on June 27, 2019. 

None of the schools received funds, and the Windward Zero Waste School Hui runs the risk of shutting down.

Here is the complete article from Civil Beat:
https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/08/this-program-diverted-tons-of-trash-from-landfills-now-it-might-end/

However, in light of this sad news, we had donors fund the program for this past August and September, and we thank them. And now friends of Windward Zero Waste School Hui created a GoFundMe campaign to hopefully sustain the program through the rest of the current school year (2019-2020).

Please help keep our program running. Donate and share this article.