Sprouts of Hope: Learning About Sustainability

Sustainability—Now a Part of Our Schools

By Maya

The Sprouts of Hope had the opportunity to meet with the Cambridge Public School’s new Sustainability Coordinator, Kristen von Hoffman. She has a lot of experience with environmental issues; before she took this job, she was the founder of Greenfox schools, a nonprofit organization that works to make schools green and sustainable.

One of the things that Kristen does is work with Meryl Brott to expand composting in the schools!

Meryl helped King Open to start a pilot composting program and now she and Kristen are working with other schools to make composting part of what kids do with food waste. The city’s Department of Public Works, where Meryl works, put

together a manual with Frequently Asked Questions that explains how to set up composting in a school cafeteria —and we hope all of the schools in Cambridge will be doing this soon.

So far, King Open, the 9th Grade Campus, and the Graham & Parks schools are composting their cafeteria leftovers. From September to February, these schools have composted more than 14,500 pounds and saved more than 14,500 lbs of CO2, according to Meryl and Kristen. That's equal to the weight of 1.75 elephants.

Kristen is now working to create and implement a sustainability plan for the school district. The five main categories she uses to look at the whole picture of the sustainability in the schools are energy, waste, food, products, and green space. She devised a report that outlines the major goals and she named the program, Cambridge Green Schools Initiative (CGSI).

She wanted to hear our ideas as she works to create a CGSI website. Here are a few we came up with:

Making a YouTube video

Advertising on Facebook

Drawing a logo

Posting photo albums and other visuals

Tying in with our blog—The Sprouts of Hope Kids

Advertising in areas around the high school

Holding contests to get kids involved

Thinking of a motto

Including sustainability projects in community service hours

Raffles

Having kids take a sustainability pledge

Including links to a group page

Anything else to engage the community.

We even started think of more acronyms for the five parts of sustainability — energy, waste, food, products and green space — and by the time Kristen left we had sketched a possible logo that she took home with her.

During the meeting we also discussed the importance of biodiversity, reforestation and, of course, sustainability. Population is increasing, so sustainability is vital. We all can and we all need to make a difference.

Kristen also told us about geo-engineering. Geo-engineering is about the way we look at changing the world while keeping in mind the big picture. Sustainability is one of the components involved with engineering the earth. A main focus is eliminating the effects of climate change. She told us about some of the earth-saving inventions, such as panels that deflect sunlight and how it ultimately deflects heat; naval ships that can do chemical reactions for climate change; and man-made trees that suck in carbon dioxide and transfer it into hydrogen.

We definitely learned a lot from the meeting and we are hope to have a chance to follow up on all the ideas we discussed to launch a great website for CGSI.

Sprouts of Hope: Collecting Socks for Homeless People

Being Part of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Sock Drive

By Eliza

For the second year in a row, the Sprouts of Hope decided to participate in the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP)’s sock drive. BHCHP is a city-wide nonprofit organization that provides health care for homeless people in Boston, and every year in the early spring, they have a sock drive.

Socks can reduce the risk of skin infections, prevent frostbite, and foster good hygiene. Many homeless and poor people do not have access t

o clean socks.

When we went to the sock drive finale and delivery party, we learned more about BHCHP and their yearly sock drive. We found out that last year, 13,000 pairs of socks were donated during the sock drive. That is a lot of socks, and hopefully this year there will be even more!

We listened as Cecilia Ibeabuchi, who works at the BHCHP clinic as a nurse, explained that homeless people aren’t allowed to take their socks off in shelters in order to prevent infections and bad smells. But this means that homeless people’s socks get really dirty. Often, this means they have to use plastic shopping bags as socks.

She invited us to come by the foot clinic so we could see how our socks are being used —and learn more about what she and the volunteers do when people arrive there with foot problems.

The Sprouts contributed 65 pairs of socks to the sock drive, and it felt great to be supporting people in need. We were able to exchange business cards with nurses and volunteers who work at BHCHP and we hope to continue our partnership with them in the future. Overall, it was an inspiring event and a cause worth learning about and celebrating.

Sprouts of Hope: Learning About Sustainability

Sustainability—Now a Part of Our Schools

By Maya

The Sprouts of Hope had the opportunity to meet with the Cambridge Public School’s new Sustainability Coordinator, Kristen von Hoffman. She has a lot of experience with environmental issues; before she took this job, she was the founder of Greenfox schools, a nonprofit organization that works to make schools green and sustainable.

One of the things that Kristen does is work with Meryl Brott to expand composting in the schools!

Meryl helped King Open to start a pilot composting program and now she and Kristen are working with other schools to make composting part of what kids do with food waste. The city’s Department of Public Works, where Meryl works, put together a manual with Frequently Asked Questions that explains how to set up composting in a school cafeteria —and we hope all of the schools in Cambridge will be doing this soon.

So far, King Open, the 9th Grade Campus, and the Graham & Parks schools are composting their cafeteria leftovers. From September to February, these schools have composted more than 14,500 pounds and saved more than 14,500 lbs of CO2, according to Meryl and Kristen. That's equal to the weight of 1.75 elephants.

Kristen is now working to create and implement a sustainability plan for the school district. The five main categories she uses to look at the whole picture of the sustainability in the schools are energy, waste, food, products, and green space. She devised a report that outlines the major goals and she named the program, Cambridge Green Schools Initiative (CGSI).

She wanted to hear our ideas as she works to create a CGSI website. Here are a few we came up with:

Making a YouTube video

Advertising on Facebook

Drawing a logo

Posting photo albums and other visuals

Tying in with our blog—The Sprouts of Hope Kids

Advertising in areas around the high school

Holding contests to get kids involved

Thinking of a motto

Including sustainability projects in community service hours

Raffles

Having kids take a sustainability pledge

Including links to a group page

Anything else to engage the community.

We even started think of more acronyms for the five parts of sustainability — energy, waste, food, products and green space — and by the time Kristen left we had sketched a possible logo that she took home with her.

During the meeting we also discussed the importance of biodiversity, reforestation and, of course, sustainability. Population is increasing, so sustainability is vital. We all can and we all need to make a difference.

Kristen also told us about geo-engineering. Geo-engineering is about the way we look at changing the world while keeping in mind the big picture. Sustainability is one of the components involved with engineering the earth. A main focus is eliminating the effects of climate change. She told us about some of the earth-saving inventions, such as panels that deflect sunlight and how it ultimately deflects heat; naval ships that can do chemical reactions for climate change; and man-made trees that suck in carbon dioxide and transfer it into hydrogen.

We definitely learned a lot from the meeting and we are hope to have a chance to follow up on all the ideas we discussed to launch a great website for CGSI.

Sprouts of Hope: Collecting Socks for Homeless People

Participating in the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Sock Drive

By Eliza

For the second year in a row, the Sprouts of Hope decided to participate in the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP)’s sock drive. BHCHP is a city-wide nonprofit organization that provides health care for homeless people in Boston, and every year in the early spring, they have a sock drive. Socks can reduce the risk of skin infections, prevent frostbite, and foster good hygiene. Many homeless and poor people do not have access to clean socks.

When we went to the sock drive finale and delivery party, we learned more about BHCHP and their yearly sock drive. We found out that last year, 13,000 pairs of socks were donated during the sock drive. That is a lot of socks, and hopefully this year there will be even more!

We listened as Cecilia Ibeabuchi, who works at the BHCHP clinic as a nurse, explained that homeless people aren’t allowed to take their socks off in shelters in order to prevent infections and bad smells. But this means that homeless people’s socks get really dirty. Often, this means they have to use plastic shopping bags as socks.

She invited us to come by the foot clinic so we could see how our socks are being used —and learn more about what she and the volunteers do when people arrive there with foot problems.

The Sprouts contributed 65 pairs of socks to the sock drive, and it felt great to be supporting people in need. We were able to exchange business cards with nurses and volunteers who work at BHCHP and we hope to continue our partnership with them in the future. Overall, it was an inspiring event and a cause worth learning about and celebrating.