Back to the Future :
Waste? Where we’re going we don’t need waste!
By Patty Corwin
One of my earliest kitchen memories, from my thirty-six years as the cook at the San Francisco School (SFS), is of a student’s grandmother bringing me in a bucket to fill with kitchen scraps to feed her chickens.
SFS was a small “hippy alternative” school in the southern part of San Francisco, founded in 1966, as a Montessori school: preschool through 6th grade. In 1980 when my daughter started preschool there, I worked in the kitchen one day a week for tuition reduction. When the cook announced she wouldn’t be returning the following year, I took her place.
From the beginning, the school was committed to healthy, made-from-scratch food, and - though it wasn’t called this yet - a zero waste goal. We made a hot lunch for about 200 people, including a main course, a salad or vegetable, whole wheat bread and fruit. We ate on china plates with real silverware and glasses, served family style in the classrooms. The children set and bussed and sponged off their tables in the “montessori way”.
Cooking mostly from scratch and buying in bulk reduces so much packaging and waste. I purchased 25 lb. bags of dry goods such as beans, rice, flour, cornmeal, etc. and #10 cans of tomato sauce, paste, beans, coconut milk, etc. We opened and broke down our cans, the children jumped on them to flatten them. I took them home to my own recycling bins before we got bins at school. We saved packing materials like egg cartons, cardboard, twist ties etc. for art projects. We discussed less wasteful packaging ideas with the kids. They in turn taught their parents and made sure they recycled and composted at home.
We catered many school events over the years from our big industrial kitchen. When we had leftovers we would take them to a local food bank. We also lent out our hotel pans, big stainless bowls etc. to staff and parents for their own personal events. I always loved the idea of sharing rather than buying or owning, like a tool lending library.
The kitchen felt like the heart and soul of the school to me, like a really BIG family. Many of the staff (those not eating in the classroom) ate at our big stainless steel work table. I served them leftovers from the week and always made a big fresh salad to go with it. They could also take home left-overs.
The children visited the kitchen daily, picking up and returning lunch carts and asking what we were having. They were always welcomed, sometimes helped cook and asked for recipes. I recognized myself in those “young foodies”.
Now retired, I tell my grandchildren about life before plastic: deli meats wrapped in butcher paper, pickles dipped from a barrel with a piece of waxed paper, cottage cheese in waxed cardboard containers. Your grandma might also have some good stories to share. Sometimes the key to the future can be found in stories from the past.
Patty Corwin, now retired and living in San Francisco, CA, has dishes you can borrow for your next picnic.
Resources for Bringing Reuse to your School
Upstream Solutions has put together the Reuse for Onsite Dining Library.
Resources for students and teachers from the EPA.
A System for College Campuses: https://www.usefull.us/
If you live in Sonoma County Zero Waste Sonoma has mini-grants up to $600 to implement reuse. Tour local jurisdiction might too.
Upcoming Events
February 8 : Corte Madera Repair Fair + Clothing Swap
Our first Repair Fair of 2025 is coming up on Saturday, February 8th from 1-4pm at the Corte Madera Community Center. If you have an item in need of repair you can register it at the link below. Or clean out your closet and trade in your things for some new to you clothes at the clothes swap. Interested in helping out? We can always use general volunteers in addition to the Repair Coaches! Email volunteer@reusealliance.org or sign up here !
February 11 : Virtual Reuse Roundtable : Reuse Legislation
Our first Reuse Roundtable of 2025 is coming up and it’s virtual! If you are a reuse practitioner come network and hear from Kyle Wiens (CEO of ifixit and President of repair.org), Miriam Gordon (Reuse Program Director at The Story of Stuff), and Joanne Brasch (Director of Advocacy and Outreach at the California Product Stewardship Council) about current and upcoming Reuse Legislation how it will affect your work and what we can all do to make it happen. This event is free to Reuse Alliance Members and a suggested donation of $25 for everyone else.
Opportunities
January 27 at 4pm PST : Call for Submissions - art about reuse. Brower Center Berkeley, Art/Act; Local 2025 Exhibition 5/26 - 8/21, 2025.
January 31 at 11:59 PM PST : Call for Speakers for the CRRA Conference in Monterey, CA happening August 3-5, 2025
March 1 : Call for Proposals for the Build Reuse Conference happening August 4-6, 2025 in St. Paul, MN.
March 31 at 5pm EST : Deadline for Concept Papers for $12.5 million funding opportunity from the DOE Circular Supply Chain Accelerator.
Reuse in the News
Shareable has released a toolkit on how to start (or grow) a Library of Things in your community.
If only all construction projects had a 95% diversion rate.
Reuse to Amuse
Are you a fan of Shohei Ohtani and Reuse? Then this T-Shirt is for you! Thanks to Stay Vocal for your reuse education work and for donating the proceeds to Reuse Alliance.
Thanks to our volunteer Kevin for sharing this amazing video about the future of car part reuse.
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