By: Alana Williams, MS, School Nutrition Consultant
An Interview with Rust Belt Riders in Cleveland, Ohio and Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District.
Did you know that nearly one-third of all vegetables and milk served in the National School Lunch Program goes to waste? That’s a substantial amount! With sustainability taking center stage, many schools are finding creative ways to reduce their environmental impact. From minimizing waste to leveraging community resources, schools are embracing eco-friendly practices to make a positive difference. This brings us to an important question: How can we make a lasting impact in our schools?
We recently spoke with Amy Voigt, Food Service Supervisor for Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools, about their efforts to reduce food waste through a partnership with Rust Belt Riders, a Cleveland-based food waste recycling service. In this blog, we’ll delve into Rust Belt Riders’ mission, featuring insights from the Rust Belt Riders Worker Owner Robert Kurtz, and highlight how Brecksville-Broadview Heights successfully implemented this innovative composting program in their kitchen and provide suggestions for how your school can adopt sustainability initiatives!
What are the Rust Belt Riders?
Rust Belt Riders has been on a mission for over a decade to make composting accessible, especially for organizations like schools. Based in Cleveland, this team of passionate individuals started with a simple goal: “Feed People, Not Landfills”. Since 2014, Rust Belt Riders has been working with people and organizations across Northeast Ohio to provide them with a clean and timely alternative to landfills for their food scraps. Their efforts are aimed at combating global warming by sequestering carbon in the earth through the creation of healthy soils from discarded food.
Today, they partner with over 20 different schools in Cuyahoga County, offering everything they need to set up, maintain, and expand composting programs within their school district.
“Nothing we do is radical,” says Robert Kurtz, Worker Owner at Rust Belt Riders. “Composting is something our ancestors did; it’s about returning to those earth-based principles and giving back to the land that sustains us.”
How the Composting Program Works
Implementing a composting program in a school setting may sound daunting, but Brecksville-Broadview Heights has made it efficient and manageable. Here’s how they’ve set it up:
Separation of Compostable Items: Kitchen staff utilize designated trays near their prep areas to separate compostable food scraps. This system streamlines the process and ensures that only appropriate items are placed in the compost bin. Below are some beautiful pictures showcasing the food scraps collected after prep!
Storage and Collection: To keep things fresh (and odor-free!), compost bins are stored in the freezer until they’re ready for pick-up. Rust Belt Riders come by to collect it weekly, leaving a fresh compostable bag and clean bin to keep the cycle going.
Rust Belt Riders’ Support: Rust Belt Riders handle all the aspects of bin cleaning, collection, and composting. According to Kurtz, this full-service approach is designed to make composting accessible and sustainable for schools. “We provide everything the school needs and guide them through each step, from setting up bins to ongoing support,”. Rust Belt Riders also offers presentations for administrators, sustainability committees, and even school boards, helping schools get buy-in and support.
Rust Belt Riders provided Brecksville-Broadview Heights and many of their school partners with helpful visual aids, including posters that clearly illustrate what can and cannot be composted. These guides help staff and/or students to quickly identify compostable items, ensuring a high rate of compliance and reducing contamination. How cool is that!
Advice for Schools Looking to Start Composting
For schools considering composting, it's best to take it one step at a time! Start with a manageable scope, such as involving only staff in the composting process initially, to help everyone get comfortable before introducing it to students. Gaining support from leadership and staff makes the process significantly smoother. Additionally, securing funding for composting programs can be a challenge, but many schools have successfully obtained grants or reallocated their budgets to support sustainable initiatives.
The Big Impact of a Small Step
If composting feels overwhelming or isn’t feasible for your program right now, there are plenty of other impactful ways to go green! Serving local foods supports nearby farmers and reduces food miles, while share tables cut down on food waste by allowing students to share unopened items. School gardens offer fresh produce and hands-on learning opportunities, and paperless menus can help reduce paper waste. Switching to compostable or reusable containers minimizes single-use plastics. Small changes like these can make a big difference in creating a more sustainable school environment!
Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District and many other school districts are setting a powerful example of environmental stewardship through their composting program. “It’s amazing to think that the waste we used to throw away now has a purpose,” shared Voigt. “We’re not just reducing waste; we’re creating something positive with it.”
As the school year progresses, it can be inspiring for schools to explore similar initiatives. Partnering with local sustainability organizations allows schools to play an active role in building eco-friendly practices within their communities—one compost pile at a time.