The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has recognized citizens and businesses who have demonstrated a commitment to the environment for this year's GreenCircle Awards.
Read this partial list of honorees below to become inspired, contact them to join in, or start an effort of your very own!
Dave Steinmetz – Woodbridge, CT
Dave Steinmetz and his sisters have worked on the "No Butts About It" litter campaign since 1996. Dave and his sisters have conducted neighborhood cleanups and maintained a website that promotes the elimination of cigarette butt litter.
Virginia Walton, Recycling Coordinator, Public Works Department – Mansfield, CT
Among numerous other strides to promote recycling, Virginia’s main effort is the composting program she installed in Mansfield’s schools. Virginia teaches K through 12 students through the actual composting of school lunch wastes, which fertilizes the Green Thumbs garden in the Southeast School’s greenhouse.
Allan Rawson & Jeffrey Rawson, Rawson Products – Putnam, CT
Allan and Jeffrey Rawson donated 37 acres of open space lands, which will preserve a section of Rocky Brook and provide a link from the Airline Trail to the Tri-State Marker.
Charles Keating, Trail Maintenance Volunteer, Chatfield Hollow State Park – Killingworth, CT
Charles Keating is the sole volunteer for the over 10 miles of trails at Chatfield Hollow State Park and adjoining sections of Cockaponset State Forest. He routinely works on clearing blown down branches from the trails, "armoring" wet spots, and improving drainage.
Kevin Watson – Norwich, CT
Kevin Watson adopted the streets Canterbury Turnpike and Old Canterbury Turnpike. On average, he cleaned them three times a month or about 3,000 volunteer hours per year. He has also been involved with various Wildlife Projects at Salt Rock State Camp Ground.
Chanelle Adams – Bloomfield, CT
Chanelle is a twelve year old, eighth grade student at the Lewis Fox Middle School Science Academy in Hartford. With the goal of educating the public on the importance of keeping a clean environment, she conducted a cleanup day in the vicinity of her school entitled: "Harford is Beautiful, Let’s keep it That Way!"
Russell Miller – Madison, CT
For the past two years, Russell Miller has organized the clean up of the salt marshes at Hammonasset State Park in Madison where approximately 580 cubic feet of Styrofoam were removed from the marshes. Mr. Miller also planned a pollution prevention activity with groups of children to measure the Styrofoam, learn about recycling, and built an eight-foot by ten-foot fort, complete with a roof in an effort to recycle the material.
Carolyn Wysocki, Ecological Health Organization, Inc. – Berlin, CT
The Ecological Health Organization and Grassroots Coalition developed an environmental instructional program for daycare centers to teach children and their families the value of preserving ladybugs and the use of Integrated Pest Management as an alternative to using pesticides.
James Ventres, East Haddam Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission – East Haddam, CT
Mr. Ventres, the wetlands enforcement officer, teamed with the Town of East Haddam to prevail in the wetlands enforcement action against the Goodspeed Airport.
Jesse Raymond – Colchester, CT
For his Eagle Scout project, Jesse Raymond relocated a ¼ mile portion of the Orange Trail at Devil’s Hopyard State Park. He got his Colchester Boy Scout Troop 72 from Colchester, Connecticut involved in the project. The total donated labor consisted of 100 hours, and Jesse’s work made the Orange Trail safer to use.
John Sheirer – Enfield, CT
The McCann Family Farm is an 84-acre nature preserve in Somers, Connecticut that includes a two-mile hiking trail. Between May 17, 2005 and May 17, 2006, John Sheirer hiked this trail once a day, clearing downed trees, removing litter, monitoring plant and wildlife, and attending to damage caused by the October 2005 flood.
Source: Read a full list of honorees
No Lunch Left Behind
February 20, 2009
Op-Ed Contributors
By ALICE WATERS and KATRINA HERON
Berkeley, Calif.
This new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to be a poor investment. It should be redesigned to make our children healthier.
Under the program, the United States Department of Agriculture gives public schools cash for every meal they serve — $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced-price lunch and 24 cents for a paid lunch. In 2007, the program cost around $9 billion, a figure widely acknowledged as inadequate to cover food costs. But what most people don’t realize is that very little of this money even goes toward food. Schools have to use it to pay for everything from custodial services to heating in the cafeteria.
On top of these reimbursements, schools are entitled to receive commodity foods that are valued at a little over 20 cents per meal. The long list of options includes high-fat, low-grade meats and cheeses and processed foods like chicken nuggets and pizza. Many of the items selected are ready to be thawed, heated or just unwrapped — a necessity for schools without kitchens. Schools also get periodic, additional “bonus” commodities from the U.S.D.A., which pays good money for what are essentially leftovers from big American food producers.
Continue reading "No Lunch Left Behind" »
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