SF Environment Honors Local Schools with Environmental Excellence Awards
San Francisco was the first city in the world to put green bins in school cafeterias. Now, more than 85% of city schools participate in SF Environment’s Food to Flowers! Lunchroom Composting Program, which teaches that composting and recycling help protect nature and the environment. Every year, SF Environment presents an Environmental Excellence Award to four local schools that have excelled with composting and recycling at school.
At the School Award Ceremony at City Hall on May 1st, SF Environment honored George Peabody Elementary School, Tenderloin Community School, James Lick Middle School, and Mission High School. Supervisor Scott Wiener made a special appearance as did SF Environment’s kids’ mascot Phoebe the Phoenix.
George Peabody Elementary eagerly began composting in 2007, when many other schools in the district were not yet doing so. Thanks to their administration’s dedication and students’ efforts, Peabody’s composting program has been consistently successful, year after year.
Tenderloin Community School shows what community spirit and real effort can achieve: After ten years of composting with varied results and many challenges that stalled the program, Tenderloin Community School started composting anew and is now at 78% diversion—one of the highest diversion rates in the district!
James Lick Middle School is the first middle school to ever win this award! Thanks to their student Green Team’s enthusiasm and peer outreach, Lick Middle School sets an excellent example for other middle schools to follow.
Mission High School has been diligently working to instill composting into school culture since 2009. Despite the challenges in motivating high school students to change their behaviors, Mission High’s student Green Team is achieving success through its tireless efforts and estimable commitment. Indeed, the students in the Green Team are already poised as young community leaders that know how to inspire others to action.
