The Watchmen organization has a community garden space of roughly 1/2 acre. We'll be using this grant to share compost with the community and create up educational opportunities about reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, and how composting diverts food and yard waste while improving soil quality.
Food waste is a large category of material in municipal landfills, where it creates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. By composting our food waste we can greatly reduce the amounts of methane produced. In addition, the compost produced can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and produce higher-yielding crops.
As soon as we receive funding, we will
- purchase compost to be used in the garden as well as be available to community members.
- purchase composters or raw materials to build composters to create a compost demonstration plot showing various methods of composting.
- develop an educational program for a community event on April 24.
- use the seed money to apply for a larger grant to be used to purchase home composters to sell to the community at a reduced cost.
While we can meet remotely, the plan is that many of our discussions will be held outside at the community garden following CDC guidelines (masks and social distancing).
