Harvest Hill Community Garden

Announcing the Harvest Hill Community Garden at William Jewell College! Many folks here at Jewell along with some dedicated Liberty community partners have been working hard to organize the garden and applications are now being accepted. Find out more are http://harvesthill.ning.com/

Andy and I are planning our CJS plot - we hope you'll come to the Hill and join in the fun!

eat local for the holidays

Join the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition and your neighbors in supporting our local food system.

Sign the online pledge to have at least one local food item in your holiday meal. It might be the sweet potatoes, the pecans for your pumpkin pie, or even the turkey itself. Whichever you choose, you can make a difference by supporting local farmers and vendors.

Find out what items are fresh now in Greater Kansas City, and check out recipes using some of those ingredients.

Not sure where to find local foods? Check out these vendors and stores and restaurants specializing in local foods.

You can find food items for your holiday meal right here at home. They're local, they're tasty and they're easier to find than you might think!

Organic recycling in Caf, Cage, Perch

Beginning tomorrow, Wed. Nov. 17, we will begin recycling all organic, compostable waste in Dining Services. To learn more about the program, and find out what is compostable or not, go here.

Within the cafeteria, Cage, and Perch, everyone who works or eats at Jewell will separate organic, compostable materials from non-compostable. The compostable waste will be diverted from the landfill and instead taken away by Missouri Organic to be composted at their facility. We already purchase all of the compost and mulch used on our grounds from Missouri Organic, so now we are completing the cycle!

This will have only a minor impact on our dining routine. Please follow these steps when busing your tables at Jewell:

• Deposit all organic, compostable waste into designated waste cans only. The majority of your waste should fall into this category.
  
• Deposit any non-organic, non-compostable waste into designated waste cans only.
  
• Place scraped off plates onto a tray and on the conveyor belt.

If you have any questions or concerns about this process, or to find out if an item is compostable or not, drop me an email at honset[at]william.jewell.edu and I will figure out the answer.

Support urban farming in KC

Support Urban Food Production in Kansas City!!

The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, one of our community partners from Rock Out Reach Out is getting the word out about urban farming in our city. Whether you grow local food or buy local food, this information is very important to you. Come to BADSEED, Tuesday, October 20, 6:00-7:30 pm, to discuss proposing City Code changes that will benefit Urban Agriculture.

BADSEED has gotten a lot of flack and legal pressure lately about farming in the city, and I want to invite Kansas City friends and allies to support Kansas City urban farming by coming to this initial meeting.

Katherine Kelly of KCCUA says, "In our meetings with the Urban Planning and Development staff, and with various city council people, they expressed a willingness to work with us to develop codes that more accurately fit the ways that urban food production is developing in Kansas City, MO. They are in a review period looking at the revised codes, so the timing is good for refinements.

The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, Bad Seed Farm, and the Food Policy Coalition for Greater Kansas City are organizing a meeting of any interested community members who would like to have input into this process. You are invited to attend, Tuesday, October 20, 6:00-7:30 pm, at the Bad Seed Market at 1909 McGee, Kansas City, MO."

The goals of the meeting are:

· To look at existing codes that impact urban agriculture,

· To brainstorm about changes that might be useful and supportive of the benefits of urban agriculture, and

· To put together a volunteer committee of Kansas City, MO residents to lead the codes revisions process. This committee would work with KCCUA, the Food Policy Coalition, and city staff to research possibilities, prioritize, draft, and build political support for more urban ag applicable codes.

· Start a process that other municipalities in the metro area can use as inspiration and as a model for creating more urban ag friendly cities.

At the meeting, we will have KCMO Councilwoman Beth Gottstein, Patty Knoll from the Planning and Development Department of the city, and possibly other city representatives.

PLEASE RSVP to Katherine Kelly! They want to have some idea of how many folks to expect. And, if you can, bring a folding chair, Bad Seed will have some on hand, but depending on the numbers, we may need more.

If you have any questions about this, you can contact:
Katherine Kelly, KC Center for Urban Agriculture, 913-831-2444, or katherine@kccua.org
Gretchen Kunkel, Food Policy Coalition of Greater Kansas City, ghkunkel@kc.rr.com
Dan Heryer & Brooke Salvaggio, badseedfarm@hotmail.com

Even if you can't make commitments to the long process ahead, I hope we can have lots of people show overwhelming support for this initial meeting. Hope to see you there!

Welcome back!

As we gear back up for the school year here at Jewell, we're also gearing the blog back up. I encourage you to subscribe, follow (in the right column), or check back often to see what we're blogging about here. Or, become our fan on Facebook and get updates from the blog there. Either way, make sure to leave us comments and let us know what you think about it!

I thought we'd start the year of blogging with a bit of information about cardboard recycling, since we're expanding that on campus this year. We started in the residence halls last spring, and now with the help of two CJS Recycling Interns, we're taking it campus wide, so look for the new bins throughout campus, next to the paper and plastic bins. So, here is some information to spur you on as you're breaking down those boxes.

"Recycling cardboard (like any other type of paper) reduces the demand for new paper from virgin pulp, thereby saving trees and decreasing the amount of pollution generated in new paper production. Finally, because cardboard is such bulky waste, recycling it saves significant amounts of space in landfills and reduces pollution in areas where trash is incinerated." (www.riverwired.com)

"Facts about recycling 1 ton of corrugated cardboard:
Saves 17 trees from having to be cut down and used for pulp
Saves 7000 gallons of water
Saves 11 barrels – 462 gallons – of oil
Saves more than 3 cubic yards of landfill space
Corrugated can be recycled an average of 7 times before the fibers become too short and they are filtered out as sludge during the pulping process, which is then used as cover at landfills." (www.papertrail.com)

According to the EPA, paper products take up 34% of landfills. (www.epa.gov)

Making the pulp used in unrecycled cardboard creates sulfur dioxide, a gas that contributes to acid rain. (www.valleyrecycling.org)

Finally, it is important to buy recycled cardboard (and other recycled products) in order to close the loop. If we don't create a market for recycled products by buying them, companies cannot afford to use our recyclables in their manufacturing, which defeats all of our effort in the first place.

No AC

I made it into a New York Times article today about going without air conditioning at home. I mentioned Jewell and the Center in the interview, but it didn't make the final cut.

Have you considered trying this out? Especially with the weather we've been having lately I hope you've taken advantage of the cool nights. Let me know if you need any more tips!

Take out

We are always especially on the lookout here for things our students can do to lower their carbon footprint (since they don't have houses to weatherize or backyards to grow food). Here's a good article about the pros and cons about containers for the inevitable take out meal.

http://www.chow.com/stories/10870

The best advice NOT included in the article is: get out of the habit of eating take out in the first place! We all do it of course, but the more times you sit down to eat somewhere with reusable utensils the better it is all the way around. And honestly, no matter where or what you're eating, food tastes better with real silverware anyway!

recycling services

There had been rumors of Kansas City's curbside recycling being cut back to every other week, but we just found out it will continue on a weekly basis, and more items are being accepted than before. The new items accepted are: paper/hardback books, pizza delivery boxes without food, cardboard egg cartons (not styrofoam), shredded paper in a paper bag that is labeled as shredded paper.

To find out more about Kansas City's curbside and drop-off recycling options check this website: http://www.kcmo.org/pubworks.nsf/web/trash?opendocument

For those in Jewell's neighborhood, check the city of Liberty's recycling options: http://mo-liberty.civicplus.com/index.asp?SID=318#Curbside

Others in the Kansas City Area can check out Recyclespot.org, or if you live somewhere else, you should be able to find out about recycling in your area at Earth911.com

Results!

The results of our 350 Green Project are in!

362 people joined up with the Center, SIFE, and Bridging the Gap to reduce their individual carbon footprints. This surpassed our goal of 350 people!

Together, all 362 of us have contributed to a total annual carbon savings of 1,334,661 pounds.

We had our prize drawing on Friday to celebrate our success, and the winners were Matt Drabenstott, Phillip Cuendet, Rebecca Ewing, and Alixandra Dennis. Congratulations to the winners, and to the whole Jewell community for making such a huge difference!

This marks the end of our Jewell campaign, but you can continue to sign up at Bridging the Gap. If you haven't done so, join this important effort and Do Five Green Things!

Socially Conscious Shopping

Confident that you are buying good, socially conscious brands? Find out the real story behind all that marketing money and store visibility.

Burt's Bees, Tom's of Maine, Naked Juice: Your Favorite Brands? Take Another Look -- They May Not Be What They Seem
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/131910

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle@Jewell

Reduce@Jewell

Lights – turn off your light if you are leaving any room for more than 15 minutes, including offices and common areas.

Computers – turn off computers and monitors at the end of the day.

Café/Cage – enjoy your meal with others in the cafeteria or the Cage instead of getting your food to go in a disposable container.

Printing – avoid printing papers and e-mails as much as possible. E-mail drafts to others for proofreading and see if you can turn in your assignments electronically. When you do need to print, print on both sides.

Books – check to see if you can find a book at the Library before you order it online. Reserving it from another library in KC is just as fast as waiting for shipping!


Reuse@Jewell

Bags – take tote bags with you when you shop.

The Perch – use your own coffee mug or travel mug instead of using disposable cups.

Water – carry a reusable bottle with you instead of grabbing a bottled water.

Paper – save paper and use the blank side for scratch paper before you recycle it.

Boxes – break down large cardboard boxes and save them for the end of the semester when you leave the dorm.


Recycle@Jewell

Paper – deposit the following paper products in the blue “Paper” receptacles located throughout the campus: copy paper, envelopes, magazines, newspaper, shredded paper (un-bagged).

Aluminum – deposit empty aluminum cans in the blue “Aluminum/Plastic” receptacles located throughout the campus.

Plastic – deposit empty plastic bottles in the blue “Aluminum/Plastic” receptacles located throughout the campus.

Cardboard – break down and deposit the cardboard products into the “Cardboard” receptacle located in the Residence Halls (more locations coming soon). Please be a good neighbor and break it down!


Do you have other ideas for Reduce-Reuse-Recycle@Jewell? Leave a comment and let us know what else we can be doing!

Jewell students helping KC

Students Help Plaza Hotel Go Green

Green ideas for dorms?

I just found an article from the Utne Reader about environmental sustainability and the unique challenges apartment dwelling brings to the table. I know many of our students here have similar concerns about living in the dorms. We as a college community are working on ways we can address the sustainability of our campus and dorms, but what can you the students do on your individual level? I think the article about apartments has some good ideas that apply to dorm living too.

• your choice of cleaing products (provided you ever clean that thing that is!)
• use programmable and/or smart power strips
• reduce the amount of meat and processed foods you eat in the cafeteria and in the dorms
  
• use less hot water
• turn lights and things off when you're not using them
• join the 350 Green Campaign!
  

There's a LOT more where these ideas came from in the article itself. Check it out.

Are there things that you do in dorms or apartments that you would share with us?

Fuel Efficiency

Check out this visual about fuel efficiency. Nothing brings the concept home like these images.
Getting Around @ Good Magazine

Beautiful Weather

My wife and I took advantage of the beautiful weather in Kansas City yesterday to do some laundry. "Why would you do that on such a day?!" you might ask. Well, because we love to dry our clothes outside in the breeze and sun.


As we have become more conscious of our carbon footprint in the last few years, line drying our laundry was one thing that we were holding out on. It just seemed like so much more work. We always made lots of excuses while we lived in apartments, even though our good friends and neighbors who lived right upstairs found creative ways to line dry theirs. When we bought a house most of the excuses we had made for years were even less valid than before, so we decided to give it a try. Turns out, it is not nearly as much work as it seems, and in fact it is quite enjoyable. I have grown to really enjoy the 10 quiet minutes after each load while I stand in the breeze and sunshine hanging up clothes.

This spring as we see more and more of these beautiful days like we had yesterday, why don't you consider investing $5 in a clothesline and find the nearest tree to give it a try. What's the worst that could happen?

Now, if you're living in the college dorms, or just have a small apartment, you have good options for line drying your laundry too. For around $20 you can head over to your favorite retailer and get a drying rack with 25 feet of space, all in a compact rack that fits in the corner of your room and then folds up nicely. We use these in the winter for inside drying. I know $20 sounds like a lot to spend on laundry, but when you think about all those quarters going into the dryer every week, $20 goes pretty quickly.

From here on out it's pretty simple. Enjoy the smell and feel of your clothes that no amount of "summer breeze" fabric softener can ever duplicate. There are lots of tips all over the internet for the best ways to hang what items and so one, or better yet, ask your grandma!

Do you have any tips for line drying your clothes? Have you ever done this before? What is holding you back from trying it? Leave your comments here and check back to see what others think about the idea.

p.s. We didn't just enjoy the nice weather by doing chores - we also left the laundry hanging for a while and took the motorcycle out for a spin too!