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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rhonda Kaiser, Program and Policy Director of Cafeteria Culture, on Local Composting and Environmental Education
3:12:56
ยท
120 sec
Rhonda Kaiser from Cafeteria Culture discusses the importance of local composting programs and environmental education in schools. She highlights how their organization has expanded its programs to include composting cafeteria food waste, emphasizing the educational benefits and long-term impact on students.
- Cafeteria Culture has partnered with Compost Power to implement composting programs in schools.
- The organization aims to create a replicable model for local composting in schools, placing students at the center of the initiative.
- Kaiser urges the city council to expand funding for local composting and compost education, highlighting its importance in building infrastructure and providing lasting, inclusive education.
Rhonda Kaiser
3:12:56
Yeah.
3:12:57
Thanks.
3:12:58
It's hard to follow Domingo but I'm gonna try.
3:13:01
Thank you so much council member Abreu and members of the sanitation committee.
3:13:05
Thank you for this opportunity for all of us to speak today.
3:13:08
I'm Rhonda Kaiser.
3:13:08
I'm program and policy director for the environmental education organization Cafeteria Culture.
3:13:14
You heard from our students today, they become climate leaders by taking action in their own cafeterias and their own city halls.
3:13:21
And this year, thanks to city council funding, we were able to expand our programs beyond the plastic reduction in the cafeteria to composting cafeteria food waste at nearby sites run by compost power with our students leading the way.
3:13:35
In the classroom, we teach about the concept of composting, but on-site when our students discover worms, chop their own food scraps, add in their browns, and turn the tumblers suddenly composting isn't an abstract idea.
3:13:47
It's real, it's local, and it's something they have access to and they can do right now, right here in their community.
3:13:55
Local composting programs don't just process food scraps as you've heard today from a lot of people.
3:14:00
They build climate literacy, they grow community ownership, and they spark lifelong habits.
3:14:06
We envision every community composting site, all of whom are here today, that they can partner with nearby schools to build on this model that we're piloting this year, to not just learn about composting but actually compost their own food scraps.
3:14:21
We're committed to advancing our cafeteria food waste reduction program and expanding the local food scraps processing across multiple school settings.
3:14:28
Our goal is to identify the most effective infrastructure and systemic solutions for scaling up local composting in schools.
3:14:35
By placing students at the center, we're not only diverting waste, building a replicable model for our long term community driven action.
3:14:42
So we thank the city council for funding this year.
3:14:45
We urge you to expand it for local composting and compost education, not only for building this important infrastructure, but also for the education that makes the work lasting and inclusive.