Waste: Why Is So Much Food Wasted-3

First, let me say thank you for the great content. I love the interviews!

I like to pass on an elegant solution that my friend Nance Klehm is working on.

The food waste from a large homeless shelter in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood is vermicomposted by the residents as part of the shelter’s educational mission. The resulting earthworm castings are used to propagate plants for use in and around the building. They do this in two large greenhouses.

The greenhouses grow soil, food and people! Each greenhouse is 2,500’sq. The Greenhouses opened Oct. 15, 2007. Two to four program individuals work in the greenhouses. They are trained in seed and plant propagation, insect management, vermicomposting, pruning and basic horticultural skills.

We grow soil through VERMICOMPOSTING which means ‘composting with worms’.

There are currently approximately 500,000 – Eisenia fetida (Red Wrigglers) worms in 30 boxes. (We started with 100,000 worms.)

They live in bedding made up from shredded newspapers gathered from the over night guests and mixed with used coffee grounds.

The cafeteria on average turns out 500lbs of food a week. We match the cafeteria waste with what the worms can eat (approx. 300-500 lbs/week). The worm castings are used to grow ornamental plants for the building and vegetables that are used in the cafeteria.

The Greenhouses of Hope close the loop!: Food – Waste – Soil – Food.

Our small group of Rooftop growers helped them build Sub-Irrigated Planters a couple of weeks ago.

A great program that should be used as a model in other institutions.

Close the loop!