My Treehut Early Learning Centre is growing more than young minds thanks to their involvement with the Taupō District Council Resource Wise Schools Programme, a free scheme in which schools work their way through a practical journey of waste minimisation.
To celebrate International Compost Awareness Week (1 – 7 May) we visited the team at My Treehut and The Cubby to check out their composting initiatives and flourishing vegetable gardens. My Treehut caters for children from three years to school age and The Cubby caters to one and two-year-olds.
The early learning centre is leading the way with its commitment to conservation, with sustainable practices at the forefront of their day-to-day activity. The team of passionate teachers use reusable nappies, compost their food scraps, grow vegetables and herbs for the children’s kai, collect rainwater for irrigation, and have a robust recycling program in place.
The Cubby team leader Kerry Godden says they are working hard towards being a zero-waste centre and are constantly looking for ways to improve their practices and be more environmentally friendly.
“We have been working with Shannon from Taupō District Council as part of the Resource Wise Schools Programme for a couple of years now, and we have found it to be such a valuable partnership,” Kerry said.
“Shannon has been able to help us identify areas we could improve on at our centre, especially around waste minimisation.
“We had a lot of food scraps that we wanted to keep out of landfill, so Shannon has helped us implement a composting program that includes bokashi bins and worm farms.”
Kerry said the tamariki love it when Shannon comes to visit.
“She has taught us a lot about composting, the dos and don’ts, and how to care for our worms.
“The children get very excited about the vegetables growing in the garden. We pick them and give them to our on-site chefs to include in our kai throughout the week.
“We love being able to share our conservation journey with the children - we actively encourage them to care and respect the environment around them.”
Taupō District Council environmental ranger Shannon Hanson says she really enjoys being able to show the children how to turn food scraps into more food.
“There is a certain magic to it, seeing the excitement of the kids picking a big red tomato that they’ve helped grow.
“My hope is that they take these early learnings with them and continue to compost and grow their own food at home with their parents. Environmental education at this young age will make a positive difference to the world around them into the future.”
Composting is an inexpensive, natural way to divert organic waste from landfill - where it rots and creates methane emissions.
Taupō District Council encourages families in the Taupō District to give composting a go at home and offers a subsidy of up to $100 toward composting equipment for residents as an incentive.
If you are interested in finding out more about composting at home visit taupo.govt.nz/composting.
