North Seattle College
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

"North had the Sustainable Food Fair on January 20, 2010. The event consisted of fifteen minute presentations in the Baxter Event Center given by Vegetarians of Washington, Theo's Chocolate, Cedar Grove Composting, Chaco Canyon Cafe', and Seattle Tilth (Master Composter).The Farmers Market didn't present, but they did participate and had a table set up like the other vendors with things for sale, information to pass out and samples for students to try. Vegetarians Of Washington was our Keynote Speaker. They presented in the Cafeteria where about 75 students were present. The Food Fair was the launch to composting at North! Student volunteers stood in front of the new compost, recycling and landfill waste bins to help fellow students navigate which bins their lunch waste went in. A month before the Fair, NSCC ordered all compostable service ware from Cedar Grove Composting. This will insure all forks and spoons, plates, to-go containers, straws, and cups are compostable, which means less in the Landfill Waste Bins. Until February 5th volunteers helped out in the cafeteria from 11:00 am till 1:00 pm to navigate the waste in the cafeteria. North has set a goal to reduce landfill waste by 60 percent. The Sustainable Food Fair was a great opportunity to recruit students. Email addresses were captured for the Sustainability Club. A couple students volunteered to help sort later in the week. Lots of students showed interest in and was proud of the new composting at North. Comments were taken on a sheet that read “What improvements would you like to see in food available at NSCC?” for both faculty and students. Most common answers were vegan food, locally sourced food, organic food, and signage around to tell about improvements."

As a result of the outreach achieved by the 2010 Food Fair, North Seattle Community College has defers 350 pounds of compostable waste from the landfill each week.