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Worms love
cafeteria food...
In February of
2007, Hokulani Elementary School teachers Laurie
Yoshinaga and Naomi Oshiro were awarded grants
to bring in Waikiki Worm to introduce vermicomposting
to their 4th graders.
Two classes started with three 10-gallon bins, each
with 1/4 pound of worms. Feasting on leftover peas,
carrots, corn, rice, bread, fruit cocktail and salad,
their first harvest in June yielded a worm colony more
than three times the original.
The next year's 4th graders took over the project, and
quadrupled the population in six months! Six bins expanded
to twelve, threatening to take over all the space on
the 2nd floor lanai outside the classrooms.
Opala.org to the rescue
When Suzanne
Jones, the Recycling Coordinator for the City &
County of Honolulu, offered to sponsor one Pipeline
bin as a demonstration project for one of the many schools
participating in their Recycling Teaching Partner program,
Hokulani's impressive vermiculture skills paid off.
Through their knowledge, hard work and consistent good
care, Hokulani School students had amassed sufficient
wormstock for a commercial system – nearly 30 pounds!
The Hokulani Pipeline made its debut appearance at the
2008 Discover Recycling Fair, then was delivered to
Hokulani School.
Kokua - building the Worm Hale
The
next step was to find the perfect site for the Pipeline
and to build the infrastructure to house it. Head custodian
Rey Bergonio identified an underutilized spot
on the campus behind a small office near the lunchroom
that fit the bill.
Then principal Al Carganilla went to work, hitting
the phone and e-mail to solicit help from Hokulani's
parents and community partners.
They
came through with unsurpassed generousity! Architectural
drawings were donated by Paul Noborikawa of ADI
Design. George West of Ameron donated
the cement for the concrete foundation, and Ioane
Emosi from Foundations Hawaii helped with
the preparation and pouring of the cement, assisted
by Layne Fujimoto, Raden Nagamine,
Brian Okada, Scott Werkmeister (all Farrington teachers),
and Hokulani custodian Larry Ohta.
The
Worm Hale roof went up in a couple of weekends
thanks to the generous donation of materials, time,
and professional construction skills of Dacre Bowen,
Philip Rapoza, and James Bostick,
assisted by the multi-talented Mr. Carganilla.
The beautiful structure blends in as though it were
always a part of the campus. Cozy and protected from
the sun and rain, students enjoy operating their revolutionary
new school waste management system. The worms continue
to multiply and increase their capacity to process food,
paper, and cardboard waste.
Fundraising with worms
An additional
benefit of Hokulani's Pipeline system involves harvesting
and selling the worm's product – called vermicast
– at the end of the processing cycle.
Students got practice in screening, weighing, and packaging
vermicast the first year of their classroom project.
Their original 10-gallon bins had produced 60 pounds
of vermicast from the 413 pounds of food waste vermicomposted
over nearly a year's operation. That was enough for
each 4th grader to design a label and package up one
pound as a holiday gift to their favorite gardener.
The 2009 yield of vermicast from the Pipeline system
was harvested last November and totaled 260 pounds.
At the going rate of $5/pound, that's truly garbage
to gold!
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