October 30, 2012
\nBy Irene Florez<\/p>\n
This year, Lincoln Elementary did something few schools would have dreamt of 10 years ago: It formalized a green connection with Waste Management to exchange food scraps for compost.<\/p>\n
Lincoln and roughly 50 other Oakland schools are now taking part in \u201cGreen Gloves,\u201d a collaborative effort to reduce and sort the waste leaving OUSD during meal times.<\/p>\n
The aim, says Nancy Deming, OUSD\u2019s Sustainability Program Initiatives Manager, is “to have a program that the school and its students are directly involved in that provides a much more meaningful environmental impact.”<\/p>\n
According to Deming, the main impetus at Lincoln Elementary was Lana Cheung, Lincoln\u2019s head custodian.<\/p>\n
With more than 600 students<\/a> and two meals served every day, Lincoln used to send 12 cubic yards of trash to the landfill every week. These days they have reduced that by 33 percent. Most of this reduction was through incorporating compostable trays and sorting trash after meals.<\/p>\n Cindy Seh, Lincoln\u2019s head night custodian stands in for Cheung during sick days and vacations. She says though the green change requires more work for custodians, it\u2019s a change for the better.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to teach kids to save the earth,\u201d she says. \u201cStressing the importance of keeping clean and recycling is good for raising responsible children.\u201d<\/p>\n Seh\u2019s children attended Lincoln. Both are now at American Indian Public Charter School.<\/p>\n Annie Liu, a 7-year-old in Chou\u2019s class, says that the process is easy.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just separate and stack,\u201d Annie says, while munching on the pretzels that accompanied her chicken soft tacos and trading her classmates milk for carrots.<\/p>\n All told, Lincoln Elementary\u2019s 20 minute per child lunch period results in three and a half hours of lunch related work for custodians. In the end, 8-cubic yards ends at the trash every week and the school receives compost once a year. In total, WMEarthcare is committed to providing OUSD Green Gloves schools at least 100-cubic yards of compost per year.<\/p>\n So far the compost is used in the school\u2019s playground kale garden and in Cheung\u2019s flower garden located at the front of the school.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately our school isn\u2019t located in a green open space,\u201d says Lincoln\u2019s principal. \u201cSo, with composting and gardening we can each do a little to bring attention to our environmental connection.\u201d<\/p>\n To learn more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 30, 2012 By Irene Florez This year, Lincoln Elementary did something few schools would have dreamt of 10 years ago: It formalized a green connection with Waste Management to exchange food scraps for compost. Lincoln and roughly 50 other Oakland schools are now taking part in \u201cGreen Gloves,\u201d a collaborative effort to reduce and … Continue reading Oakland Local: OakTown Gardens: Reducing waste to ‘green’ Lincoln Elementary<\/span>