Lily Wheeler and Jolee Flynn MA K-12 Food Rescue Leaders

Our names are Lily Wheeler and Jolee Flynn, and we are Freshmen at Natick High School. In 7th grade, we learned about the global goals set by the United Nations and what it means to be a global citizen. We decided that we wanted to help make a difference in our world, and we got started right away. With the help of our social studies teacher, Mrs. St. George, we started Project Sapling. Project Sapling was a student run organization at Wilson Middle School from 2021-2023. The goal of the project was to raise awareness about climate change in our world, and to teach people that they can take action against it. During the first year of our project, we wanted to show students how to turn knowledge into action. We hosted events throughout the year where we invited community leaders and activists to present on specific topics about climate change. After their presentations, we did a small activity to show that knowledge is the key to making real change. Thanks to a grant from the Natick Education Foundation, we were able to plant two trees in the Wilson Middle School courtyard at the end of the year to commemorate the project’s success.

​In our 8th grade year, we wanted to continue making an impact in our school and community through Project Sapling. We set a goal to incorporate a composting program into the Wilson cafeteria by the end of the school year. Composting is the process of collecting extra food waste and turning it into nutrient rich soil. With data from a past survey we learned that Wilson threw away 1500 pounds of trash every week, and over 60% of this trash was actually compostable. We made signs, posters, and a video to teach kids how to compost properly, and once again with the help of Natick’s director of sustainability, we were ready to begin. It went amazing. We were totally caught off guard with the enthusiastic response to the program, from both the students and parent volunteers who monitored what went into the compost bin. The waste was picked up once a week by a Black Earth Compost, which is a commercial composting company that operates in our town. Since we left our middle school, the program has expanded and now takes place every single day in the cafeteria. Now not only are we reducing our schools food waste, we are also creating nutrient-rich compost for our community to use in the future. In fact, just recently, volunteers planted a tiny forest at Natick High School using compost from Black Earth.