Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Food's for Thought but Not for Waste!

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Each week all of the tzrifim (cabins) get inspected. Beds are made with the pillows head-to-toe, the floor is swept, and all of the lights and fans are turned off. Conservation. We flip off switches to conserve energy and in the chadar ochel (dining hall) we tell the chanichim (campers) to "take what you need, and eat what you take." Aside from being a clever phrase to chant, we are going for a zero-food waste summer. Our hope is that by drawing attention to how much food we waste at each meal, those numbers will decrease over the summer. We started on Sunday night with 42lbs of collective waste, to 18lbs at dinner Monday night, to 12lbs today at lunch. Another fun phrase to chant is "ein lanu bizbuz" (we don't waste), which a table gets to proudly chant if their table doesn't produce any bizbuz (waste) at a meal. At breakfast
three tables cheered loud and proud!


At the rate that these numbers are falling, a zero-food waste summer is no longer just a nice thought, but a very attainable goal. We'll let you know as the numbers get closer to zero. Also, something to note is that food that is considered compostable is not included in weighing the food that we waste. After each meal, we have a compost bucket in the middle of the chadar ochel for things like orange peels and apple cores that we then dispose of in the compost pile we
keep behind our mitbach (kitchen). In the meantime, this is a great way to practice what we preach and give our community something to work towards together.



Tzevet members and chanichim alike rejoice in our conservation efforts after lunch












...Check out

-M.C. SHMOLLY

2 comments:

  1. a compost pile is great -- also like your photos! take a picture of the kids who work in the kitchen!

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