Students running a compost drive at the Sharpe Refectory collected 736 pounds of edible waste left over from students' meals Tuesday.
The drive, which lasted all day, is one of a series of events that are part of After the Harvest, a weeklong program sponsored by Brown Dining Services.
The edible waste collected will be taken to Earth Care Farm, a postconsumer compost system located about 30 miles away from campus in Charlestown.
The compost drive today was "just the kickoff to get students aware of composting," said Elizabeth Mersereau, production manager at the Ratty and a liaison to local soup kitchens.
"We want to keep it simple, train folks one small group at a time," she said.
Mersereau plans to start with the staff working in the salad room and advanced prep sections of the kitchen. "All the products they produce are edible compost," Mersereau said.
Aaron Glieberman '08, who was involved in the project, said the main goals of the program are making the problem of food waste visible and getting students involved.
The event seemed to generate a positive response with students, who lined up to deposit their waste in the bins.
"I think it's really important they did it, because it made everyone realize how much food they waste. It'll make me think twice about grabbing too much food," said Annie Blazejack '09.
"We want people to be asking us questions, be unsure and be involved," Glieberman said.
Brown Dining Services sponsored After the Harvest with the help of Will Lambek and Rachel Brett '06, who worked to recruit the volunteers, Glieberman said.
After the Harvest is designed to alleviate hunger in the community, as well as reduce the environmental impact of consumption. Food waste can be reintroduced to the environment, adding nutrients to the soil, Lambek said.
At similar event held at the Refectory last spring, students weighed their own food waste, after which Glieberman took the average and multiplied it by the number of undergraduates at Brown and the number of days in a semester. The resulting estimate of wasted food was thousands of pounds.
"It had more or less of a shock effect," Glieberman said.
Mersereau said that expanding Tuesday's composting program into a permanent procedure is a long-term goal. One difficulty is that most of the edible compost from students contains contaminants that have to be weeded out before the waste can be taken to a compost site. Otherwise, the entire batch of compost cannot be used, Mersereau said.
"It would take a lot of resources and logistical support, so what we are looking for is a small scale, behind-the-scenes system," Lambek said.
"We want to produce edible compost, something that can be used by local farmers to be put back into the food supply of Rhode Island," Mersereau said.
The compost demonstration is just one of many activities planned for this week by After the Harvest. On Thursday there will be tours of four local soup kitchens, and during dinner, students will be able to swipe unused meal credits at both the Ratty and the V-Dub. Brown Dining will then donate the money to Oxfam.
Students are also encouraged to use their flex points at the campus market to buy provisions for the soup kitchens. Donation bins are located outside of the market with lists compiled by the soup kitchens of needed items. These include non-perishables as well as cheese, peanut butter, Listerine pocket packs, cough drops and tortilla chips. The food drive will run until Thanksgiving.
As with the food waste collection, Glieberman would like to make the food drive a continuing program.
Mersereau said that she has long wished for Brown to start a "compost situation," but it wasn't until attending a seminar on food issues held by Glieberman last spring that she felt she had student backing. "Dining services could not possibly follow through and be successful without students being helpful in the whole process," she said.
