The Problem
Food waste going in to landfills when it doesn't need to be wasted!
Our Plan
Learn to garden with food scraps! Regrow your vegetables and sprout new plants from scrap seeds.
Themes Addressed
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Food Choices
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Recycle
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Sustainability
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Zero Waste
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The Benefit
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People
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Environment
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Here is how the project went:
This was a fun (and tasty!) project to organize! I just conducted and completed a virtual program at my local library for children and their families to learn how to plant and grow the kitchen scraps that would normally be thrown in the garbage. The children were more enthusiastic than I was actually expecting! Considering this was a virtual program and I couldn't supply them with their own material as I normally would do, they didn't lose focus! At least one little girl gathered all her family's scraps and tried to work with me as we went.
Through this project I/we learned:
I learned how to conduct a virtual gardening/cooking class! We learned they best (or easiest) methods for regrowing garlic, onion, green onions, ginger, pineapple, potatoes, basil, avocado, lettuce, cabbage, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots! We learned not to let lettuce get too wet or it gets really gross. We learned plants don't like hot car rides. I learned to give children a lot of credit! They can be real little learners that care just as much as adults (if not more so!) about cooking, planting and living sustainably. I learned to have more confidence in myself when in an unfamiliar situation (such as live virtual programming). I learned to relax, plan as you can and hope for the best!
What I/we might change:
I would definitely try to get my publicity ready ahead of time and provide the participants with a list of plants we would be working with. I would also try to make little curbside-pick up kits of soil. I ran out of time for this program, but I would like to offer a cooking demonstration using the vegetables we were preparing. I would also tell the children about re-purposing old containers for their gardening (such as yogurt cups or milk cartons).
My/our favorite part of this project was:
The kids laughing at me when I showed them my very sad, wilted lettuce that started to die in the car ride over to the library! There was nothing malicious about it, they just went along with my humor of things not going to plan. I think it's so important for children to see that adults mess up too and not everything works how you plan!
Some tips, tricks or fun facts about the project:
JGI Roots & Shoots has a great video and other resources about kitchen scrap gardening! It makes it easy to try your hand at window-sill gardening!