BELFAST, Maine — Ask a middle school kid to lug a bucket of leftover food scraped off lunch trays to the compost bins outside, and you might expect to be met with the infamous adolescent stare of disgust.
But at least at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast, you’d be wrong.
“We actually enjoy doing this,” sixth-grader Allaura Dunham, 12, of Belfast said recently while using a spade to spread a layer of leaves onto the remains of a lunch of pulled-pork sliders and apples. “It’s awesome, and it’s really fun. I do this every day.”
For Allaura and the other students at the middle school, composting is no occasional afterthought. According to David Wessels, who runs the 16-year-old Troy Howard Middle School Garden Project and greenhouse program, rotating crews of students work together to compost all the food waste from the cafeteria. Over the school year and the summer, food scraps combined with leaves collected by the city of Belfast turn into nutrient-rich soil the students put on the extensive gardens in the fall. The soil is used to grow vegetables that are served in the cafeteria, closing the composting circle in a way Wessels said is very effective — and instructive.
“Some kids are more into it than others,” he said. “They do think the food scraps are somewhat gross. But when they see the scraps transformed into beautiful soil and then into the food we eat, it brings home the magic of composting and the whole process.”
The lion’s share of the composting and gardening work at the middle school is done by the students who belong to the Ecology Academy, one of three in-school academies — the other two are Innovation and International. Allaura and the other students in the Ecology Academy will spend all three years at the middle school using the garden as a dynamic classroom. Additionally, academic subjects such as science, math and language arts also have a strong focus on the garden and ecology.
Principal Bruce Bailey said the garden program has been good for the students and the school.
“It’s a great opportunity for our kids to develop teamwork and build responsibility as they do the different jobs they have in the garden program,” he said. “And the compost program really allows kids to see what’s being thrown away. By looking at the compost, we see what kids like, what they don’t like. I think it’s reduced our food waste.”
By composting, the students save about 10 gallons of food scraps per day from the waste stream and bring them to a series of large compost pallets behind the school. They fill up 10 or 11 pallets over the course of the school year with food scraps, garden waste and leaves from the city of Belfast. Because of the high volume of compost material, the temperature within the pile can easily reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit, or hot enough to turn into soil. It’s so hot, and there’s so much material in the bins, that the middle school successfully composts meat and bones. However, some experts caution against that strategy for home composters because they can smell bad and attract unwanted animals.
“It gets really hot,” Wessels said, grabbing a long thermometer to demonstrate. “Is it going up?”
“Yup,” chorused the students who intently watched as the numbers rose.
“The only science to it is getting the proportions right and getting it mixed enough,” Wessels said. “Good compost doesn’t smell. Usually if it’s getting stinky there isn’t enough brown material, like sawdust, mulch hay, leaves or coffee grounds.”
Lack of aroma is a good thing, because students aren’t the only creatures interested in the compost bins. The school has several regular guests, such as a seagull dubbed “Frankie,” who ventures every day after lunch to see what’s on the menu. But because the series of bins sits at the edge of the forest behind the school, pests aren’t really a problem.
“It helps that we have predators [such as weasels],” Wessels said. “The pests can’t get out of control.”
After the material in the bins breaks down, in the fall, students run “countless wheelbarrows” full of the soil out to the garden, Wessels said. Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. In 2012, the school was named “Composter of the Year” by the Maine Resource Recovery Association.
But awards seemed far from the minds of the students busy this week composting and working to get the gardens ready for planting. The air was redolent with the earthy smell of good dirt, and the grey skies above were brightened by the smiles and good humor of a group of boys working off some pre-lunch energy by energetically weeding the raised-bed gardens.
Josh Gerry, 12, of Searsmont said he is a big fan of the Ecology Academy, and of its focus on getting outside, gardening and composting.
“It’s kind of hard work,” he said. “But I’ve learned how to weed properly and how to actually compost. I didn’t know how before.”
Josh and several other students said they’ve brought their newfound knowledge home. Hayden Brewer, 13, of Swanville, whose favorite vegetable is peas, said he has been enjoying working in the garden at his house.
“It’s saved us a lot of money,” he said. “Instead of going to the grocery store and buying vegetables, we are growing them. And we noticed a big difference in taste. I never liked tomatoes until we started growing them at our house, and I found myself eating them a lot more often.”
Wessels chimed in.
“We start them on the sungolds,” he said. “It’s the gateway tomato.”
Josh and Hayden said they’ve started composting food scraps at their homes, too, which means the circle started at the middle school is expanding — and that’s good news to Wessels.
“It adds up,” he said. “It’s great that the kids get to do every step of the process. I think it’s pretty magical.”