Food Cycle Community of Practice
Resources for Schoools
As of July 1, 2020, all food scraps and other organics were banned from the landfill, including those from schools.
Educating your students about reducing food waste & composting is the first step schools can take, along with composting on-site or hauling!
Educate your students & staff about reducing your food waste, and composting. We have a great page called “Curriculum, Presentations and Printables” that features helpful tools on how to integrate food waste reduction and composting into your school curriculum.
Separate your food waste into collection carts/dumpsters that haulers can pick up and bring to composting facilities, farms & digesters. Find a hauler in your area!
Build a compost bin at your school! This can be a great learning opportunity for students to learn how to compost as well. Check out our page “Compost Bin Construction and Management” to explore your options. Or think of installing an in-vessel compost tumbler, check out this webinar to learn more.
How to integrate food waste reduction & composting into school curriculums
Vermont is lucky to have an active farm-to-school community of networks and organizations that work hard to integrate food education into school curriculums. According to the USDA’s 2023 Farm-to-School Census, 86% of Vermont School Districts surveyed participate in farm-to-school activities. That’s over 12,000 students involved with this work!
In addition to bringing food education into the classroom, many Vermont schools are investing their food purchasing dollars into the local food system. The average school district spends 17% of their budget on local products.
It is important that how we treat our uneaten food is also included in these curriculums. Educating children about organics recycling, and integrating donation and composting programs into school food services, help close the loop of our food cycle, futher enforce food education values, and strengthen our local communities and economies.
Curriculum, Presentations, and Printables
Composting is an organically mediated decomposition process, in which microorganisms recycle organic wastes into a stable and nutrient rich humus. The processes taking place during managed composting are well understood and the practices and resulting products are very safe.
School composting programs, especially those on-site, have the potential to teach children important lessons about decomposer systems and their role in ecology and sustainable communities, as well as personal responsibility, cooperation, and thoroughness. Within the composting process itself many areas of study overlap creating a matrix of integrative study that is easily applicable within the daily life of the school community.
For example:
Earth Science and Ecology: Global Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles and their role in food systems, global climate, and the composting process.
Physical Science: Density, moisture, temperature, and chemical make up of materials in our world and in the compost pile.
Mathematics: Calculation of volume, weight, the Carbon to Nitrogen ratios of different materials, and the combination of these formulas in compost system development.
Scientific Process: Collection of data, identifying dependant and independent variables, correlating patterns in data with compost pile conditions.
Biological Science: Life science, food webs, metabolism, microorganisms, and the cycles of organic life on the planet and in the compost pile.
Nutrition: Soil-to-soil nutrient cycles and the role of compost in human nutrition and health.
Curriculum resources:
“Do the Rot Thing: A Teacher’s Guide to Compost Activities” [CVSWMD] Videos
Presentations
Printables (worksheets, games, signs)
Check out National Farm to School Network’s quick guide for Vermont
Compost Bin Construction and Management
Before You Begin: Explore Your Options
Developing School Composting/Food Scrap Recycling Programs [Word Doc] - This guide will walk you through the process of developing a School Compost or Food Scrap Recycling Program.
Decision Making Matrix for School Composting Systems [Word Doc]
On-Site Composting: School Implementation Guide [ANR, based on Highfield]
Separation Poster - Separating Your Food Scraps
Composting on Site
Building a Compost Bin
Compost Recipe for Schools [Applicable to home composting systems, too]
Vermicomposting in Schools
“Vermicomposting for Schools” [NC State]
Recorded CAV webinars
In this VORS 2025 session, we’ll share Upper Valley Super Compost Project’s approach and impact, look at a few school case studies, and consider the importance of growing stronger local area ties.
The Upper Valley Super Compost Project (UVSCP) is a nonprofit initiative to bring tailored compost infrastructure to public schools and support the development of cooperative, fully integrated school composting programs. We work with schools to find diversion and disposal options that work for them, avoid practices that pollute or negatively impact recipient communities, increase real-world problem-solving for students, and enhance the biological health of soil in school and community landscapes.
In this VORS 2025 session, we’ll share UVSCP's approach and impact, look at a few school case studies, and consider the importance of growing stronger local area ties.
Presenters:
Cat Buxton, Grow More Waste Less
Alison Baker, Fruit to Root