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Students in Durango investigate food waste for Earth Day project

Great Old Broads challenges middle schoolers to create documentaries

Food is wasted at every step in its production from the farm to dinner tables. To help curb the problem locally, some middle school students are exploring the issue for a mini-documentary.

“We could save the Earth by not having food waste,” said Mia Baguskas, a sixth-grader who was recently researching her documentary.

About 40 percent of the food in the U.S. is wasted, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. Some food goes unharvested because the demand for it is low. More food is wasted during the processing stages or at grocery stores, according to the council.

In Durango, about 20 percent of the residential waste is food, according to an audit by the Southwest Colorado Council of Governments. Once the food reaches landfills, it contributes heavily to methane emissions.

Many alternatives exist to throwing food away, such as composting and feeding it to animals, said Susan Atkinson, a volunteer with Great Old Broads, a national nonprofit based in Durango.

“The worst thing to do is throw it away,” she said.

Atkinson challenged students at Mountain, Miller and Escalante middle schools to create documentaries focused on environmental issues in honor of Earth Day. The top student documentaries will be screened along with “Just Eat It,” a documentary on food waste, on April 21. She did not know how many students plan to enter.

To help inspire students, Atkinson showed them a preview of the film, which focuses on two people who try to live for six months on only discarded food.

“We definitely, kind of, whet their appetite about that subject,” she said.

Angela McManus and Mia Baguskas, sixth-graders at Miller Middle School, decided to learn about food waste in their community.

They started their research Thursday at Manna Soup Kitchen, where excess food is given out in to-go containers, used to supplement the soil and set aside for pigs raised by local farmers.

“What doesn’t go to the compost pile goes to the pig bucket,” said kitchen manager Thomas Bentley.

Much of the food the soup kitchen receives comes from grocery stores that can’t sell the usable products.

The students grilled him on areas of waste in the community.

Restaurants are a major sources of waste, he said. The waste audit done by the council of governments found that about 26 percent of the waste from downtown Durango is food.

Earth Girls on north Main Avenue is among businesses trying to cut waste. It gives food waste to Durango Urban Agriculture, which composts it for free, said Kirsten Gum, owner of Earth Girls.

Most of the compost is vegetables because Earth Girls sells vegan products, and the staff makes everything in small batches.

“We probably have the prettiest compost around,” she said.

David Golden, owner of Table to Farm Compost, also is trying to combat the problem of food waste through his business, which collects compost from residents and companies. His company turns table scraps into compost and returns it to the customer.

Golden learned about food waste while dumpster-diving for his friend’s college research project.

They found completely edible food, still in the packages.

“Once it’s home, you couldn’t tell the difference between that and something you bought in the store,” he said.

At the industry level, the problems include the sell-by dates, which are set ahead of when the food expires, and the high bar set for food aesthetics.

“Composting is the last resort that you want to be taking,” he said.

But it does prevent the production of methane because compost is turned, which introduces oxygen into the process. It also reintroduces nutrients back into the soil.

“We’re overall depleting our soils by not composting,” he said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

This story has been updated to correct the name of David Golden’s business, which is Table to Farm Compost.

If you go

“Just Eat It,” a documentary about food waste, and the winning mini-documentaries produced by Durango-area middle school students will be shown from 6 to 8:30 p.m. April 21 in the Miller Middle School auditorium.

Jun 12, 2016
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Apr 22, 2016
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