Editor’s Note: Each month, Yahoo! For Good unleashes Purple Acts of Kindness to surprise and delight our local communities. In October, inspired by mandatory composting laws in San Francisco, we partnered with Urban Sprouts to build compost systems in schools and to promote composting at home with students and their families.  Here’s an account from their Executive Director.

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Every week, Urban Sprouts’ Garden Educators visit seven different public middle and high schools in San Francisco, to teach students to build their own school gardens. Urban Sprouts helps youth grow their own fresh and healthy food right at school, while learning about healthy living, cooking, science skills, and protecting the environment.

Each day, when young people harvest potatoes they grew and turn them into French fries, or carefully weed around baby plants they grew from seed, these students change the way they feel about what foods they eat and what toxins their lifestyles contribute to our natural environment.

One major way students in San Francisco can keep the environment clean is by helping reach our city’s goal of recycling or composting 100% of the waste we produce, keeping it all out of landfills. Students in Urban Sprouts’ programs have said, “I learned how to use the compost bin and about how everything affects our earth. I want to make sure we reduce, reuse, and recycle,” and “I have already started to teach my family and friends.”

Now, San Francisco has passed a law requiring separation of compostable waste at home for curbside pick up, using kitchen pails and green garbage cans. Our friends at Yahoo! have generously funded our entire project to help students promote home composting among their peers and families.

Over 700 students at seven schools will participate, building complete compost education stations open to the public at their schools, and creating school-wide peer education campaigns to educate their schools on how to use their green garbage cans at home. Urban Sprouts students will build demonstration compost systems and worm bins, create short videos, and hand out kitchen pail liner bags as part of the campaign.

With help from Yahoo! and San Francisco’s youth, we can reach our city’s goal of Zero Waste!

Abby Jaramillo
Executive Director
Urban Sprouts