5 for Good: Effort to turn food waste into fertilizer benefits disability community on Cape Cod
Cape Cod Challenger Green Fertilizers helps to fund club that provides free activities to people of all ages
Cape Cod Challenger Green Fertilizers helps to fund club that provides free activities to people of all ages
Cape Cod Challenger Green Fertilizers helps to fund club that provides free activities to people of all ages
Food waste does sit long inside Barnstable High School. Instead, it is placed into a food dehydrator to become the main ingredient in Cape Cod Challenger Green Fertilizer.
Senior Liam Beauregard said he has been measuring the environmental impact of the effort for a science project.
"We bring the food waste from both cafeterias here after lunches," he said.
Students from a special education class are doing the work daily. Teacher Ellen Gage said it has been a great skill-building activity.
"Things like this give them the opportunity to practice all kinds of different skills, moving about the school, following directions," she said.
Down the road from the high school, the finished fertilizer is packaged. Again, inclusion is the focus when it comes to hiring. Andrew Fry said he enjoys the work.
“I belong to a community called Halyard, and they were looking into job searching for me, and they found this place,” he said. “I've been here for about three years."
There are three varieties of the fertilizer, which not only helps to grow everything from tomatoes to hydrangeas but also helps to grow local programs for the disability community.
That's because the fertilizer funds the Cape Cod Challenger Club. Executive Andrew Todoroff said the nonprofit is now in its 20th year.
"We do athletics (and) social, recreational activities for people with special needs," he said.
The activities are all free, and the club serves people of all ages.
"Last year playing baseball, for example, we had from ages four to 67,” Todoroff said. “Pretty neat."
Todoroff said with no state or federal funding the club depends on grants, donations, and the success of their fertilizer.
"The community has been wonderful. They've been supportive. Garden centers have been terrific, and so it's been a great program,” he said. "It's amazing to think that we've recycled 100,000 pounds of food waste, and we've turned it into something good."
Find information about Cape Cod Challenger Green Fertilizer here.