Mission Cape Cod
It has been said that to get something done, you should ask a busy person. In 2017, while a Barnstable High School junior playing lacrosse and basketball, readying for college and taking—among other things—AP Environmental Science, Allison Carter started a Challenge Club project. She observed food being discarded after the high school lunch program that weighed as much as 150 pounds of compostable material. What really hit home, she says, “Was that well over 100 pounds of food waste was happening daily at Barnstable High School. The attached daycare center—for children aged three to five—was averaging a pound per child.” Her BHS Challenge Club goal was to get a commercial EcoVim composter for the high school to make use of food waste. By the fall of 2018, her senior year, she and six fellow students realized this goal.
Carter had approached the Cape Cod Challenger Club—an Osterville non-profit that serves special needs children—who agreed to buy the $21,000 composter with the caveat that the school develop and sustain a program utilizing special needs students to maintain the composter. The Challenger Green Project was born. Andrew Todoroff, a volunteer with the Osterville group, has been involved from the beginning and proudly says that they “have just passed 20,000 pounds of food waste recycled since we started. Now we are finishing a greenhouse where we plan to grow leafy greens for the school using their [compost] waste as a soil amendment.” As promised, students from the Barnstable High School Transitions Program are maintaining the program.
This is how the EcoVim works: the leftover food is piled into a revolving drum and tossed by paddles while being exposed to 180° heat for approximately nine hours. The result is a sort of dried mulch that, according to the EcoVim website, can result in 90 percent volume reduction. Back in 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection drafted a Solid Waste Master Plan to divert food and other organic materials from the solid waste stream. One stated objective is to divert at least 350,000 tons, or 35 percent, of food waste by 2020. Thanks to Carter’s initiative, Barnstable High School is a part of the solution.
In January of 2019, Carter initiated MissionCapeCod.com, a website to raise awareness and money to fund other projects in the community, including education and an undertaking that she was not ready to divulge. Members of the National Green Society can share ideas for green projects and track their service hours at this site as well. The site offers various reusable utensil sets— perfect for lunchboxes—multicolored metal straws, and clothing featuring their colorful logo.
Carter is currently a sophomore majoring in environmental science and pursuing a certificate in public policy and administration at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She holds an undergraduate research assistant position at UMass. This young woman has already made, and will continue to make, a difference.
