Everyone agrees food waste is a problem. Why go to all the trouble, labor, and environmental wear and tear to produce and purchase food only to toss it, uneaten, into the landfill? Recent studies suggest more than a third of US agricultural production meets this fate.

Reducing food waste therefore creates a better world. It means cleaner air and water, healthier soil, thriving habitats and thus more vibrant living.

Basically, if you eat, you’re part of the solution. Many of us already prevent waste in the first place by shopping mindfully and eating what we buy. But what about the post-consumer challenge? All those banana peels and coffee grounds have to go somewhere.

Hauling food waste to the Rockbridge County landfill has economic and ecological costs — and it’s not just taxpayers who foot the bill. Food scraps rotting in landfill conditions creates methane, a greenhouse gas many more times more potent, ton for ton, than even carbon dioxide. Methane harms our climate, and thus ourselves.

We can reduce methane emissions by keeping food waste out of the landfill.  Many people in Rockbridge are already doing that by composting food scraps at home, a DIY activity that also yields great soil for our gardens.  As a community, though, how can we scale-up composting to the next level? What about schools?

More than 3,000 children a day attend public school in the Rockbridge area and very few have the opportunity to compost their leftover lunches. That’s 1 in 10 Rockbridge residents missing a daily opportunity to help the Earth.

Our schools are working hard to reduce food waste at the production point, but what about those heaps of leftover apple cores?

• • Donations to COREworks generates the capital needed  to create and sustain robust composting systems with school partners.
  • These COREworks composting systems invite youth themselves to take a lead. By design, these projects transform more than apple cores. They transform lives.
  • When all youth have opportunities every day to step forward as Earth stewards, that’s how we grow a local conservation culture.

An entire rising generation that cares for the planet: what’s more inspiring than that?