Wormbin Prep & Foodbank Gleanings

Category: Worms | Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:57 am

I'm not sure yet what bin container I'm going to use for the Real Change wormbin, but I got started today on the bedding to fill it.

Real Change is a "street newspaper" -- a paper that covers poverty, homelessness, and other social justice issues and is sold on the street by homeless and low-income vendors for an immediate income with dignity. My husband and I both volunteer at the paper and are part of the Editorial Committee. In addition, he works the Vendor Desk on Saturdays, selling the paper to vendors (they pay 35 cents a copy and then sell it on the street for $1). I go in with him on Saturday and make myself available in the computer section for folks who want to work on writing or computer projects.

I did a little bit of that today, and spent most of the day soaking and shredding cardboard boxes and newspaper. The vendors doing chores for free papers kept wanting to take out my "garbage" for me. :)

We have one of those wastepaper-basket-sized shredders in the office, and it was already full of shredded office paper, so I soaked that too. I picked a few shreds of plastic and scotch tape out of it. I'm sure those will not compost.

About noon, I went two blocks down to the low-income apartment house "Josephinum" that also houses the offices of the homeless organizing groups SHARE and WHEEL that I volunteer with -- and has a foodbank. I picked up some olive cibatta bread for lunch, spelt tortillas and veggies for dinner, bananas for snacks -- and a big bag of fruit and veggies too-far-gone, or spilled on the floor. Back at the office, I filled a whole wastebasket with those scraps, chopped up, and some Starbucks used coffee grounds. That's going to be way more than a pound of worms can eat in two months. I plan to bring most of it back here for the compost bin; in the meantime, I covered it with a couple of inches of damp paper to keep it from becoming Fly Haven. They'll be nobody in the office tomorrow, and I'll have time to finish up and get everything tucked away.

Composting means never being disappointed! When I stated cutting up veggies for dinner tonight, I found that a lot of what I thought was still edible was spoiled, too. I was just happy that I had more compost! After I trimmed and discarded the spoiled parts, I had all that Wes and I can eat tonight, and a bucket of scraps that will be nice and ripe for the worms in a few days. (I've found that if I let scraps stew in the Kitchen Compost Bucket for awhile, the worms dive into them faster. They like their food rotten -- as long as it hasn't gone anaerobic-rotten.)

Tomorrow I do a writing workshop down at WHEEL's Women's Empowerment Center (that's tomorrow as in Sunday -- although it's technically Sunday already because it's after midnight). I might get more scraps from the lunch-makings there, too. I'm also going to pitch the idea of a wormbin at the shelter that hosts our Empowerment Center day program, at our partners the Church of Mary Magdalene, the WHEEL office... I can think of a LOT of places where a wormbin would fit. :D Certainly every foodbank should have one!

Last edited: Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:02 am

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Frank wrote on Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:29 pm:

I'm sure worms everywhere thank you Anitra :) You're such a fearless collector for them. Nice to hear of your volunteer work!

pharmerphil wrote on Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:53 pm:

very interesting and informative Anitra

eileen wrote on Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:50 pm:

Great blog entry again Anitra. Your volunteer work sounds really intersting too.

lexxivexx wrote on Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:29 am:

You are wonderful! So glad to have you here. Your blogs have increased my incessant nagging for Rob to help me start a compost heap. He thinks they're "stinky and ugly". Harumph!