Camp Minikani Compost Demonstration Site

Vital Stats

Cassie B

Hubertus, WI

people helped292
People Doing It149

The Problem

Here at Camp Minikani we are trying to set a proactive environmental example by reducing the amount of waste going into local landfills. Every year Camp Minikani serves an average of 7,000 school age students. Each of these groups on average eats two meals prepared at camp. Typically a group of 100 students will produce about five pounds of food waste per meal. With ten pounds of food waste per group, in a year they will have produced about 700 pounds total. Typically 20% of the food waste produced is compostable material. Therefore, in a typical year at least 140 pounds of compostable food waste is generated here at camp. We are currently working towards creating a working compost demonstration site. This site will serve as an example and education tool for school groups and visitors to camp. In addition, the site will be used on a daily basis to reduce our waste output and improve our ecological footprint.

Plan of Action

Our plan of creation and development of our compost demonstration site is already underway. After meeting with involved staff members, we selected a location on Minikani property that is easily accessible and in plain view to others. The site currently has three types of composting containments. It is our goal to establish four-five additional styles of compost bins for our demonstration site. Through grant opportunities, donations, homemade craftsmanship and staff involvement we hope to exhibit a variety of compost containments on site. Once the site is fully developed, we hope to create lesson plans around composting and human waste management. In the future we will also hold composting workshops for YMCA staff members, Camp Minikani neighbors, and local community members. These workshops will focus on composting basic and provide "how to" instructions for individuals to create their very own compost system. In addition, during our summer camp season we hope to recruit compost leaders- individuals that over see the composting efforts during meal times at camp.

Project Updates

Back in April we celebrated Global Youth Service Day at Camp Minikani with Steffan Middle School. Global Youth Service Day is an annual campaign that celebrates and mobilizes the millions of children and youth who improve their communities each day of the year through service and service-learning. It has become a tradition at Camp Minikani to have the Steffan Middle School join us in making a difference on Camp property. This year, we had over 430 youth participating in service learning. Projects that students were involved with included, cutting invasive species, chopping & stacking wood, mulching trails, developing the compost demonstration site, cleaning up the riding arena, weeding the gardens, and painting recycling bins.

The group of students that I supervised were working together to help improve the looks and condition of our new Compost Demonstration Site. We mulched the area, shredded newspaper for mixing with compost, moved brush and rocks, and established the information kiosk on site as well. The group helped sink the holes for the kiosk and after it was up, students took turns painting the sign. The students left with a real sense of accomplishment since they could visibly see the difference they made by their 2 hours of service.

Before we could really get working on the compost demonstration site though, we had to clear lots of brush from dead trees that were felled earlier that week. The students joined together with other service project groups to clear brush, haul fire wood, and clean up the edge of the compost/ garden area. It was amazing how all of the students were excited to be helping hands. I witnessed many students asking other students or adults if they needed help moving the piece of brush they were attempting to tackle.

At the end of the day, we had a closing ceremony with the kids, teachers, parents, and other volunteers thanking them for their hard work. We recognized Steffan Middle School by planting a basswood tree near Council Bluff. I think that many of the kids felt the rewards of volunteering and many of them experienced the true feeling of service learning.

Last week the weather in Wisconsin provided the perfect opportunity for the first ever Composting Workshop open to the public. The composting workshop held on Sunday, April 10th drew in about a dozen neighbors and a few staff members of the YMCA of Metro Milwaukee.
The composting workshop started with a general information session on composting, what to compost, types of compost, and what might work best for individuals at their home. After a discussion session, we took our visitors outside to see our Compost Demonstration site. As of this spring, there are 6 composters up and running at our Compost Demonstration Site. We discussed the pros and cons of each different containment, and shared which types of containments were our favorites.
After the tour and informational workshop-many people showed interest in returning to a future workshop in which some individuals may actually make their own composters to take home with them. As a small bonus for attending this first composting workshop- participants were able to create and take their very own "Compost Companion" home with them. Many people seemed to get a kick out of them! I hope they put them to good use!
As the weather continues to warm here in Wisconsin, we hope to have our compost demonstration site re-mulched and fixed up for further informational workshops very soon.

This winter our environmental education staff has had a little extra time on their hands to accomplish various projects at Camp Minikani. Even though the temperatures are cold many of our passionate staff are still dedicated to keeping our compost demonstration site up and running. Many kitchen scraps have been added throughout these colder months, and even our pre-schoolers have started contributing to our compost bins. Each pre-school class was given their very own “compost companion” that they can put their food scraps in from lunches and snacktimes. It has been rewarding to see the excitement from the pre-schoolers as they learn to compost and as composting becomes part of their daily lives.
The pictures show the kids with their "compost companions." These are simply icecream buckets and have interchangeable faces so each class can choose what their compost companion looks like. The kids take turns each day changing the face and adding scraps to the bucket. When the bucket is full the kids will take a hike to the compost demonstration site and empty their companion.

Last week we had our first group of 6th graders help us sort compostable materials after lunchtime. They were then taken to the compost site to dump materials and mix compost piles. Our first handfull of kids got to see how their food waste is cycled back into the natural system here at Camp Minikani!