From Scraps to Farm to Table

Composting program cuts down school’s food waste

Butterfield Farm owner Larry Hardin examines some of the tomatoes growing at his farm. Hardin operates several compost piles on the farm to help fertilize his plants. Some of the items he uses to make his compost come from ASMSA’s Dolphin Bay Café. Hardin was approached by Shawn Chen (‘22) about helping ASMSA start a composting program that would reduce the amount of food waste by the school’s kitchen.

Every day, the Dolphin Bay Café produces food waste that is the natural result of cooking for around 250 students and employees. Not every part of every fruit and vegetable can’t be used in prepared dishes.

All of that waste can fill up a garbage container quickly. So when Shawn Chen (’22) began looking for a way the Student Government Association Food Committee could help solve a campus issue, finding a use for the waste became the focus of his efforts.

“When you look in the trash can on a normal day there is a lot of food waste,” Chen said. “Working in the cafeteria gave me an inside look at how they prepare food and how much waste it could produce.”

Terry Bryant, campus food services director for Aladdin, was on board with finding a solution to the challenge. He had a discussion about composting the year before but couldn’t really find a student interested in taking on the project.

“We produce so many vegetable scraps. It’s all the raw stuff; nothing that has been seasoned. The ends. The peels. We can produce 30 gallons of scraps fairly quickly,” he said.

Chen’s first idea was possibly starting a garden on campus and use the waste to start a compost pile for it. A lack of space and the time commitment for the project forced him to reconsider his options.

That’s when he decided to find someone off-campus who could use

the food waste for composting.

Chen began searching midsemester in the fall to find someone who could use the scraps. He contacted several organizations he thought might be able to use them but kept running into road blocks. Some had very specific items they would accept. Others were interested but wanted the waste delivered to them. Some never responded.

In early November, Chen contacted someone at the Spa City Co-Op, an organization that supports local farmers who produce natural products and sustainably grown foods and support sustainable agriculture practices. That person directed Chen to Larry Hardin, a farmer who runs Butterfield Farm with his wife.

Chen reached out to Hardin to see if he would be interested in the food scraps for his farm. Hardin said yes, thinking he could use the scraps for his compost pile he uses for his plants. He also uses the scraps to help feed chickens on the farm, whose waste is also used as fertilizer, and compost for a small worm farm. “He seemed pretty interested and responded quickly,” Chen said of Hardin.

By mid-December, details had been worked out between Hardin, Chen and Bryant. Beginning in January, Aladdin employees began to collect food waste for the composting project. At the beginning, Bryant said, the hardest part was getting his staff to remember to save the scraps.

“The first couple of weeks it may have been a 50/50 proposition,” Bryant said. Eventually the routine set in, and not only were there enough scraps collected for Hardin, but an Aladdin employee and an ASMSA employee both participated in the compost program taking home some of the scraps for their own composting piles and chickens. •••

As you pull into the driveway of Butterfield Farm, you are immediately greeted by the free-range chickens roaming the property. They initially scatter as the vehicle pulls up to the house and the driver gets out but soon a few feel brave enough to walk up hoping for a treat.

The home is surrounded by plants of all kinds. Some are still flowering in Larry Hardin shows a handful of worms he is raising in a worm farm using compost to help feed them. the late June heat which is very humid after a burst of thunderstorms came through the area earlier in the day. A barn and other sheds are visible from the driveway as are several buildings that resemble small plastic-covered World War II air hangars.

The Hardins began their farm in Butterfield, which is north of Hot Springs near Malvern, as a retirement hobby. The hobby garden has grown into a larger operation that sometimes resembles a full-time job. “It’s work we enjoy. We enjoy watching things grow,” Hardin said.

The plastic covered buildings are the four hoop houses filled with their crops — heirloom tomatoes, squash, peas, beans, corn and other vegetables.

Walking through the hoop houses, soaking hoses run down each lane of plants. Without those, they’d spend hours each day watering them, Hardin said.

The pea and bean plants have grown so tall they form long archways that make you feel like you may be walking into a magical pathway from a storybook. The heirloom tomatoes are almost as tall, and the plants’ fruit are starting to turn a purplish-black.

The hoop houses have screens attached to them to keep out bugs, deer and other pests who might enjoy the fruit of the Hardins’ labor. Plastic covers the top of the hoops. A gated door keeps the chickens out. When they are working in the houses, they sometimes have a large fan going to circulate air through the rows.

Along the path to the hoop houses is one of the compost piles the Hardins have developed. It’s where the farms’ free-range chickens roam for extra food. It’s also where the majority of scraps from ASMSA go to be worked into the pile over time. Some of the scraps may be used for the small worm farm Hardin has started in a worm box next to one of the farm buildings.

Hardin said when he first spoke to Chen he didn’t expect to be offered items for his compost pile.

“It’s not something you’d normally get a phone call about,” Hardin said. I’m glad to hear that (Chen) wanted to see it used rather than go to the landfill. Everything out here is organic. I’m glad to be able to recycle someone else’s garbage.”

When he was able to get a load of waste from ASMSA, he would back his truck up to one of the compost piles and pour the scraps into it.

“The chickens immediately come running. I figure it’s fine either way. If it is in the pile, it will become compost. Eventually it becomes compost even if the chickens get to it first,” he said. •••

Just as with just about everything else in our society recently, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the composting program. Hardin said he was able to make two pickups before the school sent students home for remote instruction in March.

All involved said when school returns to session that they want to restart the composting program.

Bryant said he’d like to see more places participate in composting programs. “There is so much farming, and it’s like $10 for a trash can. It’s not expensive,” Bryant said.

As for the current program, Bryant praised Chen’s dedication to finding a partner for the program to get it started.

“I was impressed with Shawn. He mentioned the idea to me on more than one occasion. He was very persistent,” Bryant said.