“A WORM ATE MY HOMEWORK.” Chippewa Falls Middle School students with their vermicompostin’ bin of red Wiggler worms, which are capable of processing 10lbs. of food waste each day.

    When you hear the term “Going Green,” the first thought to come to mind probably isn’t worms. For Kara McClean though, the creepy crawlers are more than a trendy distraction. They’re the answer to a real problem.

Chippewa Falls Middle School, where Kara works as a guidance counselor (and previously as a teacher), is host to more than 1,100 people eating every day, which adds up to a lot of food being thrown away. Kara’s solution was multi-faceted: vermicomposting.

Together with teacher Marcy Smith, and a grant from the Chippewa Valley Sierra Club, the two have introduced two worm factories as a project for any student to participate in, bringing nature indoors.
The two Gusanito worm factories currently house two pounds of red Wiggler worms, and each factory can house up to 12,000 worms at full operation.  

A worm “farm” is capable of processing 10 pounds of food waste each day, and with 1,100 plates a day passing through, there is no shortage of worm food.

“With so much food waste building up every day, we’re trying to come up with creative ways [of disposing it] that aren’t difficult,” McClean says. “This is a start.”

The scope of the worm farms reaches farther than simple waste disposal. Students learn about the cycle of life and the benefits of moving away from a throw-away mindset. Students involved in vermicomposting collect waste for the worms from all over the school, such as vegetable scraps from home economics classes and table scraps from the cafeteria.

    This is the first year of the worm farms at CFMS and Smith says  they hope to expand the program to other classes in the future. They are gearing up their worm population for the 2009-10 school year with the goal of involving more students from all grade levels.

“Once we get this up and going, we can do a section on the environment for fifth grade students,” Smith said, adding that the worm farms could potentially be loaned to science classes.

You can also expand your own ecosystem by making a worm factory for your home. Making a home vermicompost unit can be done inexpensively with simple materials and a quick Google search. Recycling your table scraps into compost not only helps save money on fertilizer, but is part of a lifestyle of respect and appreciation for our planet.