Non Technical Summary
Clark County Solid Waste Education and Outreach seeks to address the disparities among school waste reduction programs by uniting community-based organizations, schools, and food waste experts to educate and train underserved high school students on food waste reduction and composting. Schools in low-income areas or with higher populations of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, have been historically underfunded, lacking resources to expand innovative programs, trainings, and materials. Additionally, high school students often get left out of school waste reduction programs provided by Clark County as programs generally focus on younger students. Without food waste reduction and composting education and training programs, underserved high school students have been denied the benefits of realizing at-home cost-savings through food waste reduction, knowledge of climate impacts and mitigation strategies, and experiences of non-traditional courses to enhance their skills for new job opportunities.Clark County identified equity gaps based on age and ethnicity among school food waste reduction education programs. Currently, fifty-two elementary and middle schools have active food waste reduction programs whereas only four high schools have programming in place, with just one high school participating in Vancouver Public Schools. This funding would support collaboration among community-based organizations and schools to provide culturally relevant program content and support as well as provide career inspiration to high school students. With this financial support, the project scope will focus on underserved urban high school students at Hudson's Bay and Fort Vancouver high schools within these zip codes 98661, 98663, and 98665.The project's goals are to: 1) increase access to equitable food waste reduction and composting education, incentivize training, and provide career development skills to thirty underserved high school students within Hudson's Bay and Fort Vancouver high schools, and there may be capacity to expand to other high schools; 2) Increase access to compost to high school grounds and local gardens to improve soil quality, rainwater utilization, reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers and divert residential food waste from landfills; and 3) Procure and deliver 500 cubic yards of compost to 78th St. Heritage Farm and Hudson's Bay and Fort Vancouver high schools.This training program will build upon Clark County Green Schools existing work by creating high school curriculum, providing hands-on training at school andcompost sites, and hosting local farmers and food service business owners for career inspiration. Clark County Green Schools will adopt the project framework and training program syllabus into its existing waste reduction education programs. The high school training program will continue beyond the end of the project period as Clark County recognizes the value of this program as it satisfies current program gaps and connects prospective underserved high school students to employment opportunities.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
703	6099	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
703 - Nutrition Education and Behavior;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Goals / Objectives
Goal: Bridge the gap on educational programming among underserved high school students focusing on the benefits of food waste prevention and reduction, the importance of compost, and the development of skills and inspiration towards food waste reduction and management, agricultural and composting related career paths.Objectives:Increase access to equitable food waste reduction and composting education by providing specialized career development training and skills to thirty underserved high school students at Hudson's Bay and Fort Vancouver high schools.Increase access to compost to Hudson's Bay and Fort Vancouver high school grounds and gardens to improve soil quality, rainwater utilization, reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, and divert residential food waste from landfills by procuring and delivering compost to the two high schools and the 78th St Heritage Farm.

Project Methods
Thirtyqualified students from historically underserved high schools will be selected and trained to fight food waste at their school and expand that work into the community with a focus on designing and constructing manageable on-site composting systems that are sustainable into the future. The intensive training will include:Conducting school waste audits to identify food waste characteristics and generation pointsReviewing menu planning, food purchasing and kitchen practicesCreating a food waste collection system that address contamination issues and staffing needsWorking with hands-on small-scale compost systems (composting tumblers, worm bins, bokashi bins, etc.)Planning, developing and designing on-site composting systems or utilizing existing collection system to scale upMeasuring and tracking food waste diversion from the landfill, greenhouse gas reductions and carbon sequestrationSetting up sustainable systems for moving food waste from generation points to local on-site food waste processing systemsEnsuring stable compost / fertilizer / soil product is achieved, integrating that product into horticulture plant growth test, soil lab sampling and use of the end-productMarketing and communicating the benefits of keeping food waste out of the landfill and how the fertilizer from food waste compost product gets usedExploring how to use the finished compost / fertilizer product - agronomic spread rates, potting mix ratios, plant growth studies, stormwater filtration treatment and other uses.The training program will be at least 24 hours (8 sessions, 3 hours each) with additional time for hands-on field training to put the teachings into practice by constructing and maintaining traditional aerobic composting systems (vermicomposting, backyard composting bins), and nontraditional anaerobic systems (bokashi, trench composting) for students to divert school food waste and understand how that reduces their greenhouse gas emissions. Mentoring and project-based learning opportunities will also be explored for each student. Students will receive credit for their participation, and they will be presenting their action projects as part of the program.Five hundred cubic yards of compost will be procured and delivered to the schools as well as to the Heritage Farm, a county-owned 79-acre site that includes a quarter acre composting demonstration site for field training education and scientific experimentation. Both high schools have large campuses with horticulture programs and school gardens. Currently, they do not use compost and are known to use synthetic chemicals on their campuses. This one-time purchase and distribution of compost is intended to provide data validation for compost usage and to support on-site composting systems to meet future compost needs for school grounds and gardens while collecting and processing school food waste and other organic materials to divert those materials from the landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Purchasing and distributing compost will also assist students with their action projects as they conduct plant growth experiments and soil tests on multiple compost products including industrial compost and varying compost products that they manufacture from their small-scale demonstration composting systems.To evaluate the training program, students will take surveys throughout the program. There will be a pre- and post-survey to measure knowledge and skills before and after completing the programas well as a comparison of actual accomplishments with the milestones and deliverables for each reporting period. Another survey will be conducted at the final session to collect student feedback. Clark County will lead data collection efforts to capture students' involvement, interest, and success in the program and compost procurement and distribution. Data collection will support program evolution and student engagement.