edible notables
LUNCHTIME SUSTAINABILITY
Silver Springs G.R.E.E.N. Team awarded for efforts
WRITTEN BY ERIN MEYERING
PHOTO BY CANDICE NYANDO
Picture yourself in sixth grade. What were your main concerns? Kickball? Acing your spelling test, perhaps? Or, maybe, just hanging out with friends?
Well, Rachel Leach’s sixth graders at Silver Sage Elementary in Silver Springs, Nev., have made it a priority to research, learn about, and experiment with reducing waste on their school campus.
The class formed the G.R.E.E.N. (Gardening, Recycling, Educating, and Encouraging Nighthawks) Team in 2012, and officially named it just last year based on their goals.
Leach’s students pursued truly making changes to the way their school handled trash, after realizing how much food was being thrown away at mealtimes. They now are activists in their own community by continuing to ask questions and learn about their environment.
“I never imagined this would morph into what it did,” Leach says.
In November 2013, the G.R.E.E.N. Team received $2,500 through a funding contest offered to schools by the Dolan Automotive Group in Reno.
Then, in May of 2014, it won a $5,000 grant from Raley’s. The corporation’s customer-driven Reach Grant Program awards $25,000 per year to schools receiving the most community nominations online. Having gotten more than 3,500 votes, the G.R.E.E.N. Team took the second-highest prize out of 10.
“We love seeing how communities unite around an idea, a school, or an organization and vote to make a difference,” says Jennie Teel-Wolter, community relations manager of Raley’s Family of Fine Stores. “The G.R.E.E.N. Team is a perfect example of that.”
Upon request, Leach spoke at the Governor’s Mansion during the Western Nevada Food Systems Summit. Her students contributed their thoughts during her talk and then led roundtable discussions. The experience allowed these 11- and 12-year-olds to have an honest conversation with regional policymakers about the team’s goals and how its program has positively affected their school’s waste management.
Members of the G.R.E.E.N. team certainly have made a difference in their community. In one year, more than 650 students and about 50 school staff members went from using 25 to 30 trash bags per day to only using three or four. Lunchtime waste was reduced significantly by composting, recycling, and collecting food that couldn’t be composted in a bucket for a custodian’s home pigs.
A school pumpkin patch is in the works for this year’s fall festival. For details on the current activities of the G.R.E.E.N. Team, visit http://www.sses.lyon.k12.nv.us
Erin Meyering is a recent graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno. She wishes she had had the chance for this sort of environmental and agricultural involvement in school, but now realizes it’s about creating the opportunity for yourself, and starting small in any way that you know how.
