Innovative Demonstration Projects - Community Based Food Community Based Food Innovative Demonstration Project #5 New Deal Café Vermicomposting 5) In 2017, volunteers who carried New Deal Café’s kitchen scraps to EcoCity Farms for composting applied grant money toward the vermicomposting operation they had proposed. “The Wigglers” built three Worm Wigwams on the back deck of the Café and stocked them with red wiggler worms and bedding when, in late February, 2018, Public Works installed electrical outlets for winter heating. In 2020, Wigglers and Café partners perform the following: 1. Kitchen staff place buckets of scraps near the Wigwams. 2. Wigglers, on a schedule, move food buckets to storage, check Wigwam temperatures and on hot days provide blue ice to cool the habitat. 3. Weekly, Wigglers bring pre-composted food scraps to feed the worms, aerate the bins, and apply moisture. 4. About monthly, Wigglers gather to compost stored scrap buckets, using hot-composting to create pre-composted vermi food. 5. About every two months, workers gather to harvest vermicompost through the door at the bottom of the Wigwams, storing vermicompost in cardboard boxes to dry. 6. About every six months, workers sift the vermicompost, weigh and bag it, reusing saved coffee bags. 7. A member of the Café’s Co-operative board designed a label for the bags of vermicompost. 8. Wigglers distribute vermicompost among themselves and community gardeners. 9. Remaining bags are labeled and given to Friends of the New Deal Café (FONDCA) members when they donate to that organization. When the covid-19 shutdown commenced in March, 2020, Wigglers responded by working in two- person groups, keeping six feet apart, or worked alone. The Café itself is closed, so Wigglers are using the Springhill Lake community food scrap drop-off program’s pre-composted food to feed the red wigglers. In August 2017, the Green Team’s Zero Waste Circle was awarded a Prince George’s County Community Impact Grant of $11,150, plus $500 of matching funds from Doug Alexander of the Newspaper in Education Institute, and $10,710 of in-kind donations from Greenbelt Public Works Department to undertake a one-year project entitled "Composting Food Scraps to Enrich Soils in Greenbelt’s Gardens." Greenbelt MakerSpace Cooperative Inc. acted as the grant recipient. The county grant required an equal contribution on our part of cash and in-kind contributions. Public Works was a major partner. The project is really three projects: hot composting via a 3-bin system; vermicomposting of the New Deal Café food scraps via three commercial Wigwam vermicomposting worm bins; and individual vermicomposting at home. For the New Deal Café vermicomposting operation we received $3,880 in CIG funds. For matching in- kind contributions, the New Deal Café provided free use of their deck for worm bins; Public Works provided and installed weatherproof outdoor electrical outlets for wintertime heating; and Zero Waste volunteers who became known as The Wigglers provided all the volunteer labor to feed and take care of the worms, harvest the vermicompost, and package and distribute the vermicompost. Innovative Demonstration Projects - Community Based Food 5) New Deal Café Vermicomposting Proofs 5.1 to 5.4 Log for Wigglers Vermicomposting in Wigwams at New Deal Cafe Date Activity Notes 07/03/2017 Notice of Eva Fallon notified Zero Waste Circle (ZWC) members by pending grant email. award 08/06/2017 Held getting- ZWC members met to lay organisational groundwork for organized implementing the scope of work: consultants; kickoff; Public meeting Works contacts: Luisa Robles for in-home vermi, Brian Kim for 3-bin; created teams, administrators, roles. Minutes: ​ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r4VHpX1s90ebfM3wr 1S7JFBQ_QzTZGqHCJ66vVpVWc0/edit?usp=sharing 09/01/2017 3 Wigwams Charged to Beth LeaMond: $2,165.00 ordered Budget Tracking: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BFygNt93meJAXNRZX3t 9GhabErSsZoxj2-nTnrEMdqY 09/07/2017 Worms: Team The Commercial Vermicomposter Team (shortened to the Meeting “Worms Team”) met at the New Deal Cafe: placement of Wigwams on deck; worm diet; food scrap overages to hot-compost operation; weighing and logging input and output. Minutes: ​ https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A4VmN4mK-GSy7FdRzh 0kvzxXNklD2JLi5rOJXDqYFR4 09/11/2017 Worms: Michael Hartman went into New Deal on Monday when Cafe Wigwams was closed to accept delivery. delivered 09/16/2017 Worms: Two of John Lippert and family volunteer built two of the three three Wigwam stations. vermicomposte Photos: Joe Robbins stands with two Wigwams; full food ​ rs built scrap buckets from New Deal Cafe. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B__4HCKkpH9XQm93ci 1ESVkzMXE2Sld6WnNTZGREWHlmSGQ4 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B__4HCKkpH9XQnh3VE 00ckRfWWhqOWhVZnhsNjlTdzVueTdz 09/28/2017 Worms: Team Third bin placement depends on split electrical outlets; Meeting landlord agreement on electrical changes procured; Public Works to do outlet work; discussed worm bedding, how much and what worms can consume; supplies and ordering; tasks and roles; grant reporting requirements. Minutes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EYeJ9hnteekul_ltwL0Dw eR-5pMKeC3EMWDQOPp7AOo 10/14/2017 Worms: Site Team members visited EcoCity Farms in Bladensburg where visit to EcoCity Benny Erez schooled them on his large-scale vermicomposting operation. 10/30/2017 Worms: Team Meeting includes Benny Erez from EcoCity Farms, a meets vermicomposting expert. Team gets questions answered, plans site visit to EcoCity. 20171030Worms Meeting Notes 10/31/2017 Worms: John Lippert purchases compost thermometer, pH meter, Vermicomposti and moisture meter: $46.82 ​ ng tools 20171031Worms Squirm Firm Materials receipt purchase 11/02/2017 Worms: Final Beth LeaMond and John Lippert build the third Wigwam Wigwam built behind New Deal Cafe. 20171102Worms 3rd Wigwam build 12/05/2017 Worms: Team New member John Campanile attends. John Lippert, Jane meets Young, and Michael Travis have prepped one Wigwam, lining floor and sides with many layers of newspaper and adding 8-inches leaf mold bedding. Second Wigwam set up in progress. Electrical lead outdoors for winter heat still not resolved. Methods and tools for chopping food to worm-friendly consistency discussed: edging tool wins. (Later heard Jeffrey Neal of Howard U. uses ice scraper.) 20171205Worms Meeting Notes 12/05/2017 Worms: John Lippert purchased two tarps, hand tools, thick and lined Supplies plastic gloves at Harbor Freight. purchase 20170205Worms Harbor Freight Materials Receipt 12/21/2017 Worms: Volunteers continue to pick up buckets of food scraps from Volunteers the New Deal Cafe, store them temporarily in Lore step up due to Rosenthal’s garage, then cart them off to compost in delays backyards or ferry them to EcoCity or Western Branch as Joe Robbins and now John Campanile have been doing. Other members are helping over the holidays. Electrical requirement is still not resolved. Worms can’t be ordered until we have heaters. 12/22/2017 Worms: All Beth LeaMond supplied the last layer of leaf mold to Wigwams are complete the set up of all three Wigwams. set up Vermicomposting at the New Deal Cafe: Photos A Wiggler and two Wigwams he just helped to build. A Wigwam heater requires electricity, which delayed the project while permissions were obtained. Heaters keep the red wigglers warm and active in winter. Red wiggler worms feeding on brown bedding and food scraps. Wiggler women work a worm bin. A diorama for New Deal Cafe denizens: Drum circle inside, worm Wigwams outside the window. Vermicompost is made How to use your vermicompost at the New Deal Café This excerpt is taken from the website of Rhonda Sherman, Department of Horticultural Science, NC State University (composting.ces.ncsu.edu and ​ ​ At the New Deal Café, a dedicated group of worms.ncsu.edu). She is the author of The Worm ​ ​ Farmer’s Handbook . volunteers, known as the “Wigglers,” haul ​ the Café’s food scraps to a pre-composting Vermicompost can be used immediately or stored site where the decomposing food and brown for later use. It can be added to indoor or outdoor matter are mixed and then given some time plants by placing 2 tablespoons of vermicompost for a hearty population of microorganisms per quart of potting mix around the base of a plant to develop. The pre-composted mixture is every two to four weeks. When starting seedlings, brought back to the Café’s back deck where add one part vermicompost to four parts potting three Worm Wigwams host a community of media. Before transplanting plants from small containers or flats to garden beds or larger pots, hungry red wigglers. The group then add ½ cup vermicompost to the hole for planting. harvests the vermicompost as it falls For transplanting larger plants, shrubs and trees, through a grate at the bottom of the add 1 to 2 cups of vermicompost to the hole. Wigwam “processing plant.” After curing, Vermicompost can be applied to new lawns and turf the volunteers sift and bag the compost for at a rate of 8 quarts (10 pounds) per 100 square feet and worked into 1 to 2 inches of topsoil. Top distribution.. ​ dress 6 quarts (7 pounds) of vermicompost per 100 square feet of established lawns. Vermicomposting for Business, Farms, Institutions & Municipalities What is vermicompost? Vermicomposting is being adopted by businesses, institutions, farms, and municipalities—on-site or at a centralized facility. Vermicompost is the beneficial soil amendment created by Businesses include restaurants, groceries, hotels, food ​ processors, nursing homes, wholesale outlets, farmers red wiggler earthworms markets, malls, resorts, and dining facilities. U.S. businesses ​ generate 25 million tons of food scraps, unrecyclable paper, and cardboard annually (EPA 1999). At least 74% of restaurant waste is food and paper (EPA 1999). Institutions ​ generating food waste include hospitals, schools, universities, prisons, military bases, and government centers. U.S. EPA estimated in 2006 that 35-45% of the waste generated in the United States was by schools, businesses and institutions.