Tuftonboro Community Garden Compost Group, Tuftonboro, NH. Photo credit: NERC
Building on the success of CAV’s pilot project that established community composting sites and community gardens in Vermont, CAV led a team of organics experts assembled to work with Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) on a grant funded by the US Department of Agriculture Rural Utility Services Solid Waste Management Grant Program (2018-2020).
Experts included Libby Weiland, Statewide Network Coordinator, Vermont Community Gardens Network; Dawn Pettinelli, Assistant Extension Educator, Department of Plant Science & Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut Soil Nutrient Analysis Lab; Jean Bonhotal, Director, Cornell Waste Management Institute (CWMI), Department of Crop and Soil Sciences; and, Beret Halverson, State Coordinator, UVM Extension Master Gardener & Master Composter Program. Key NERC staff that implemented the project were Athena Lee Bradley and Cindy Sterling.
The project, Implementing Rural Community Composting in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, aimed to reduce solid waste and avoid water pollution by implementing community composting in rural and small communities.
As part of this project, eight community composting sites were established or expanded. These include: Judea Garden, Connecticut; Alan Day Community Garden, Maine; schools in Wellfleet and Truro, Massachusetts; All Saint’s Church, New Hampshire; YMCA/Youth Day & Overnight Camp, New Hampshire; Champlain Valley Cohousing, Vermont; and Stamford Seed Savers, Vermont.
CAV provided training and technical assistance to the sites in Vermont and Connecticut.
CAV worked with the team to co-develop a wide variety of multimedia educational resources, curricula development, tip sheets and trainings
You can learn more about this project on the NERC website.
Compost team at Champlain Valley Cohouseing, Charlotte, VT. image Credit: CAV
Champlain Valley Cohousing, Charlotte, Vermont
Champlain Valley Cohousing has over 20 individuals and families who occupy privately owned homes on 125 acres of shared land, which includes an organic community garden. Residents are committed to living in a thoughtful way that promotes environmental sustainability and healthy community relationships. Charlotte is a town in Chittenden County, with a population of 3,754.
Stamford Elementary School Compost Team Members. Image Credit: NERC
Stamford Seed Savers, Stamford Community Garden & School, Stamford, Vermont
Stamford Seed Savers is a small nonprofit organization that operates a local seed library and a community/school garden. The organization also sponsors educational workshops focusing on sustainable living. Stamford is in Bennington County and has a population of 824.
Summer Interns present about the composting site at Judea Gardens. Image credit: Steep Rock Association.
Judea Garden/Steep Rock Association, Washington Depot, Connecticut
Steep Rock Association is a land trust whose mission is to conserve ecologically and historically significant landscapes in and around Washington, Connecticut and the Shepaug River Valley and to enhance the community’s connection with nature. Judea Garden located at the Macricostas Preserve in Steep Rock and is hosting the community compost site.
Judea Garden, started in 2009, has grown, harvested and distributed 33,000 pounds of fresh produce to members of the community with limited financial resources. Washington Depot is located in Litchfield Hills, a relatively rural area in Northwest Connecticut. The town has a population of 1,495 people.