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S E P T E M B E R  2 0 2 0  N E W S L E T T E R


Compost Co-op builds ownership
among people coming out of jail.
First you need safe & affordable housing

 

from your kitchen to Martin's Farm and back to a local farm or your garden: a closed-loop system in Franklin County

 

Housing Crisis & Co-op Solution

Yes, the whole country has an affordable housing crisis. A basic human right is denied many people in the US. In the face of the pandemic, the Aspen Institute estimates that 30-40 million people, around 20 percent of renters, will face eviction by the end of the year. This is a staggering statistic.

People with felony convictions face legal exclusion from state-funded, income-based housing, and are especially vulnerable to homelessness. At the Compost Co-operative we have come to understand that we can't fulfill our mission of building living-wage opportunities for ownership for people coming out of jail unless our worker-owners have stable, safe, and affordable housing.

Housing insecurity disrupts people’s strides towards becoming owners of the Compost Co-op. Only when apprentices and worker-owners have safe and affordable housing will the business be sustainable.

So we have decided to establish a housing cooperative, raise funds, and purchase a building that can safely house our worker owners. And we need your help.

As always when we are ready to take the next step/leap, we reach out to you, our customers/friends/supporters. We want you to join us.

You can help secure affordable housing in Greenfield for 3 families.


Check out our GoFundMe campaign and please spread the word to your networks!

Identifying affordable housing as key to our stability and the

success of all our worker-owners marks a new stage in our development. In addition to providing affordable housing, the purchase of a multi-unit building in Greenfield will allow The Compost Co-operative to establish a stream of revenue that will support the business and allow us to create even more worker-owner-track jobs in our community.

With housing costs in Greenfield already unaffordable and on the rise, we are committed to maintaining access to affordable housing while also allowing our members to build equity.

With your assistance, we will be able to:
  • Purchase a multi-unit building in Greenfield, MA
  • Ensure that 1 apartment is available for a housing-insecure worker owner by end of 2020
  • Increase the sustainability of The Compost Co-op by having a revenue stream from current tenants’ rents
  • Reduce our reliance on third-party financing and channel funds that would have gone to interest payments into maintaining affordable housing
  • Establish a permanent office space for the Compost Co-op
  • Take the next step in establishing a cooperative ecosystem to support our current and future members. 
Many thanks to our friends/supporters/customers

for supporting our work to develop real alternatives to incarceration. Please let us know if you have any questions: thecompostcooperative@gmail.com
at the Compost Co-op, our decisions are based on consensus, and as much humor as we can muster!

 

Why compostable bags?

When we started our residential service in the summer of 2019, we had a handful of brave customers willing to try us out. We  cleaned the buckets by hand, with a hose, portable sink, and brush, in a field at the farm of our partner Just Roots. Then the winter came, when water in the barn is shut off so the pipes don’t freeze. That’s when we moved to compostable bags as an alternative to washing.

Fast forward a tumultuous year and we have 100 residential customers who understand the importance for the Earth of diverting food scraps and building opportunities for folks getting out of jail, even during a pandemic--and it’s summer again. We couldn’t have made it through the tribulations of the spring without you, our supporters/customers, and we value your comments and questions.

Many of you have been asking, Do we have to use the bags? Why don’t you go back to rinsing?
 

Like all things compost-related, the bag questions prompt some profound reflections on the co-op’s mission and also its impact on the environment. When I first heard about compostable bags, I thought they were expensive and wasteful, like most other single-use products. Here’s why I changed my mind, in conversation with other members of the co-op and our allies in the composting world.
 
LIVING WAGES
Our mission is to build economic opportunities for folks coming out of jail. To pay a living-wage, we need to price our service to cover our costs. These include the labor to pick up scraps, administration, gas in the truck, tipping fees, insurance, barrels, buckets, and bungie cords, marketing, and other expenses. Washing 100 buckets and lids by hand, scraping off all that ick, would take us approximately 8 hours, twice the amount of time it takes us to pick up and tip your food scraps, so we’d have to charge around twice what we are charging, or about $15 for an every-other-week pickup, to cover our costs. That’s too much! And we’d have to change our protocol twice a year. Of course, COVID-19 changes everything.
 
COVID-19
Tying your compostable bag inside your bucket limits our contact with your scraps, keeping you and us safer as we continue to provide an essential service through a pandemic. We understand that the bags begin to decompose (doing
their thing!), stick to the bucket, and get gross. Keeping them out of the elements, and using newspaper or a paper bag at the bottom of your bucket, will help: you’ll find they hold up just long enough till we get there. If you are an every-other-week customer and want 2 bags instead of 3 at each pickup, please let us know!

BALANCING OUR NEEDS WITH REALITY
We’d love to have an efficient bucket-washing machine that uses minimal water and sanitizes and makes the whole process less icky. Such machines exist, for about $10K, and require an insulated structure, water throughout the year, and filtration, drainage, and septic systems. We will consider those options down the line, when we are ready to raise funds for major investments of this kind.
 
A CO-OPERATIVE APPROACH

Together we came up with a solution to the issue of lack of access to water in the winter that turned out to save water and make our service more efficient. We were able to absorb the increased cost of the bags (they aren’t cheap!) without raising our prices. We think that’s an excellent solution. It’s not perfect, but it reflects our mission and our capacity at this stage of our development.
 
Compostable bags are allowing the co-op to expand at a steady pace, while avoiding inefficient use of water at the farm. So next time you see your pair or trio of compostable bags, please think of them as helping us, as you are also helping us by supporting us with your subscription, to provide more opportunities for ownership among folks getting out of jail.

SUGGESTIONS
for human-friendly bag usage:
  • Keep the bags out of the heat and elements
  • Use a countertop pail to collect your scraps before placing in a bag/bucket
  • Put newspaper or a paper grocery bag at the bottom of your bucket in case the bag breaks
  • Wrap meat and bones (anything sharp) in newspaper before putting in your bucket
  • Double bag or tie one up and put the next one on top
Please let us know what YOU think!

Connect with us on facebook
or write to us at
thecompostcooperative@gmail.com

 

Thank you for your support!

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PO Box 792, Greenfield, MA 01302

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The Compost Cooperative · 16 Federal Street · Greenfield, MA 01301 · USA

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