Update:
Hello All, Hope this finds you enjoying the holidays. We wanted to give you a quick update on our progress here and wish you a happy Christmas and send out hope for great things to come in the new year.
The last couple of months since you've heard from us have been busy---exceptionally busy. As we touched on in the last newsletter, we've been getting a lot of support for our project and have been able to expand a bunch. We completed renovating our current greenhouse, which included pouring a large cement pad to facilitate the Bokashi process, building a Grub Shack to expand our Black Soldier Flies, installing a heater and ventilation system, and adding a 250-gallon reservoir for producing vermicompost "tea." We were also able to get two semi-trailers stacked with equipment from our old worm farm at WSRU. Included with the equipment were the worm bins we designed so we were able to install five of the large units in the greenhouse and it now looks like a full-scale operation.
Next we built another greenhouse that can be used for teaching and demonstrations for the Sustainability in Prisons Project. This is a sleek aluminum and polycarbonate unit that holds significant heat even on colder days.
Finally, we expanded our chicken operation to accommodate all our new chickens---now 42 in total. After seeing how much they love to peck and hunt in the compost bins, we added additional units and have been stocking them with discarded fruits and vegetables from the kitchen. We also expanded the coop we use for our egg-laying hens (and a few old retired gals), more than doubling it in size, and constructed an entirely new breeding area. We placed a pair of Ayam Cemanis in this new area and we are hoping to breed and raise chicks from them this spring. All the chickens are naturals at composting and also a lot of fun as they each have their own personalities.
On the food waste side of things, we recently released our end-of-the-year report, repealing that since we started in March we have processed over 230,000 lbs of food waste. This is the equivalent greenhouse gas reduction of taking 58 cars off the road for an entire year!
Our class went really well and last month we had our first graduation with 12 students receiving college credit for completing the curriculum. It was a fun day as a bunch of folks from Evergreen State College showed up to celebrate with us, not to mention the fact we even had cake! We already have a bunch of guys asking to be in the next class.
The highlight of our winter was this last week when we received a visit from SPP's Kelli Bush as well Sally Brown, Chuck Henry, and (for the first time we've met him) their amazing son Max. It's always great to see friendly faces and Max, no surprise, is super cool. They were here to discuss the next steps in our plan to create a statewide training facility but it felt like a visit from family.
KEY POINTS
Point of Perserverance:
It has been a long haul getting this project up and running. Covid and the ensuing changes in DOC's attitude towards programming have been extraordinary hurdles to overcome. But seeing those two semitrailers of equipment from our former project was a great reminder of what can be done. We spent a decade putting all that stuff together and when we climbed up into those trucks it was like seeing old friends.
Point of Practice:
One of the more exciting developments has been the addition of the chicken composting program. It is really low maintenance: we just bury the Bokashi-treated food waste in the bins and the chickens go to work. It keeps them busy and produces a really nice end product. We even came across a business, The Vermont Compost Company, that uses 1,200 egg laying hens to turn their compost at a large-scale level. We love systems that require minimal machines and labor and the chickens look to be one of those systems.
Point of Peace:
Changing the calendar to 2024 means we are getting closer and closer to being with you all in person, and even though these last few laps feel like the longest, knowing we have so many amazing people in our corner is awesome.
THE PLANET
Meeting Max was great, not just because he is an awesome guy but also because he is working with a company that's developing technologies to solve food waste issues. It's encouraging to see that the area of climate change we have become so passionate about is getting attention and that there are other partners in the fight.
BIG IDEA
We are more committed than ever to create a bridge between incarcerated people and environmental solutions. There is a unique opportunity to create a win-win situation where prisoners are able to work on environmental solutions and at the same time develop valuable skills while earning real wages and breaking cycles of poverty.
FINAL THOUGHTS...
We hope 2024 is a big year for EARN. We are developing detailed plans for a lot of the structure that we want to build and will soon start some grant writing to get these projects underway. It feels amazing to be moving from concept to creation. As always, we are incredibly grateful for all our supporters.