Village Gardener: For Natalie Northrup, the future is now!

by Georgeanne Vyverberg –

Last week the DEC commissioner Basil Seggos announced with a proclamation, that May 6-12 would be Compost Awareness Week. The DEC recognizes that organic materials make up 30% of municipal trash and the disposal of such wastes creates methane which is known to contribute to atmospheric pollution. When food and other organic materials such as leaves and brush are composted methane is not produced and instead the products of compost are usable to enhance the soils of gardens and landscapes. Bravo!  While we wait for the big overhaul of less sustainable systems in most communities we can start here and now with simple and affordable solutions. Let me introduce Natalie Northrup who grew up in the small and lovely village of Honeoye Falls, which is a scant ten miles south of Rochester New York. Natalie grew up in a household where environmental choices are the norm and not some recent idea or fad

For fun Natalie and her friends like to watch TED talks. TED which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design are conferences that have been held since 1984 on scientific, cultural, and academic topics. They are short, about 18 minutes long and powerful presentations on nearly all aspects of life.  Mostly they are talks concerned with environmental and social issues. In the past year they watched a TED talk by Leyla Acaroghue, who is a systems sustainability strategist.  Basically, she works to find sustainable methods for the production of products to the end life of those products, which are environmentally sustainable. Food is one of those products.

After watching this particular TED talk Natalie and her friends the ECO GEEKS decided to try to get a curbside food recycling pickup and composting system started in the village. Since it’s a small village it seemed a reasonable and achievable goal. She began doing some composting trials in her yard and also did a poll of 120 households in the village and 90 responded in the affirmative.  Within the past few months Natalie presented her idea to the Town Board. After two weeks in which the Town Board deliberated the suggestion, it was decided that at this time it would not be feasible due to budget constraints concerning employees needed to facilitate pickup and delivery to a composting facility. They would need more time to consider her suggestion.  While disappointed, she and her friends had, with the supervision of Andy Corey, a teacher at the high school, begun a group known as the Green Team, which dealt with environmental concerns. From this another group which Natalie headed known as the ECO GEEKS was formed.

Because Natalie is a senior who has some free class period time she decided to work with the Primary and Middle Schools to get at least a recycling system for lunchtime.They began with the Manor Intermediate School. With donations from Honeoye Falls Marketplace and Constellation Brands, they purchased bins for the cafeteria and another wooden bin for outdoors. The food collected is then taken to the Building and Grounds area where a large composting barrel is used to make the compost. This is used on site in school gardens and landscape planning. According to Ms. Joelle Weaver the Assistant Principle at Manor School, the compost will be a large part of bedding and soils for the soon to be constructed on site Greenhouse. The Greenhouse which has been in the planning stages for over a year will be used in programs throughout the school curriculum. Planning and design was carried out this school year by Fifth Graders. Composting of school lunches is now in both the Middle and High School and is going very well.

In addition to composting in the elementary schools she and her ECO GEEKS have made it a project to “bring the environment into the primary and elementary schools” by creating and teaching classes devoted to gardening, recycling and other environmental issues. She feels that these concepts need to be instilled early in life, as they were in hers. Establishing these ideas as part of everyone’s lives so that things like recycling and eliminating food waste become second nature.

At the bottom of the page is a list of the group’s 2017 accomplishments.

Pretty impressive wouldn’t you say?   

I think Natalie and her group should do a TED talk!

I asked Natalie if she was worried about someone else being there to take over when she graduates and goes off to college. She answered me in her certain and self-assured way that two Juniors will be continuing the program. She has been accepted at a few colleges, but her choice is Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she wants to study Energy systems. I wish her all the luck in the world, but I am certain this young woman will be extremely successful in whatever she decides to do in her life.

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Here is a list of accomplishments by Natalie’s ECO GEEKS since 2017

• Started at a 5-day Maker Faire, with lessons on the ways of how a recycling facility works, connections with nature through gardening (students planted their own lettuces), sensory inundation in the environment, upcycled thyme plant pots, and build your own composts!

• $500 Exelon grant + $450 donation, used to purchase 10 compost collection bins to use at 3 schools (Primary, Elementary, and senior high)

• 15 classrooms have been involved in Eco-Geeks specialized lessons (at Manor and Lima), lessons were taught about sustainability at home, recycling, composting and green energy (working with wind and solar—hands on), and one group helped a classroom build a compost bin (which incorporated the 2nd grade curriculum maps with measuring and tracking of data—bin height)!

• 8 assemblies led, teaching about the effective use and the purpose of a zero-waste lunch system and the ability to utilize sustainable practices and techniques during the holiday season—which included upcycled crafts that the students made, and flyers to take home to parents (instructing them of their role)

• 2 Interactive lessons with the Middle School Home and Careers dept. Teaching 6th grade students about the importance of utilizing the compost bins in the Classroom compost bins, and the destruction that occurs when organic wastes are sent to landfill

• Designed, filmed and distributed A Parent’s Guide to Eco-Friendly Meal Prep, a video that helps parents pack eco-friendly lunches for their students while contributing to the decreased supply of wastes produced.

• Club grew from one person’s idea to 20 people’s daily work and passion

• Collecting compostable materials at the primary school (4th month of collection) adding breads and pizza crusts; 10 first grade students were trained to be “Junior” Eco-Geeks

• Expanding to collect at the elementary school within the month

• Teaching about the intersection between environmental protection and wellness, through composting to create a nutritious humus in which you can grow tasty and healthy produce, at the Primary Family-Student Wellness Night (5 Eco-Geeks stations ranging from a root vegetable treasure hunt, compost bin construction lessons, farm fresh v. store bought and more)

• Article about the Eco-Geeks efforts and the potential for environmental protection through primary and elementary education written for the Impact Earth Rochester Zero-Waste Blog series