Worm Farming on the Rise – young sustainability heroes

25 November 2013

Worm Farming on the Rise – breeding young sustainability heroes

Teaching pre-school children to worm farm is creating the next generation of sustainability heroes in New Zealand, says PORSE Tauranga in-home educator Jodi Purdi.

The single mum and in-home educator said she expects worm farming to rise across New Zealand as more early childhood education (ECE) providers use worm farming as a way to educate children about sustainability. She’s not surprised that the Tauranga City Council is reporting huge demand for worm farming courses.

“I integrated worm farming and sustainability into my PORSE programme because children have a natural interest in the subject and want to learn.”

Miss Purdie completed a worm farm course at the Tauranga City Council and at the end of it she was given her own farm.

“After finishing the course, I thought what a fun way to help educate children about the environment, so I thought I would start worm farming with the PORSE children in my care.

“It’s about taking education to a grass-roots level where children are keen to discover more, they ask questions and want to be involved because they are interested in their environment.”

“The children absolutely love the worm farms. They all bring healthy packed lunches each day so the banana skins and apple cores can go straight to the worms. We try and have as little waste as possible. Once the worms are finished with the soil we put it on the vegetable garden so the children see the whole cycle. We are big on trying to reduce, re-use and recycle.”

Tauranga City Council Waste Minimisation Programme Leader, Kimberley Cleland says in the last few years its worm farming workshops have doubled in size and it has had to increase the number to meet demand.

“We now have over 100 people attending each workshop and waiting lists every time. With the rise in home vegetable gardeners, more and more people are looking to compost and use worm farms to provide fertiliser for their plants. Worm farming helps the Council’s goals to reduce organic waste to landfill. This material has high environmental harm so worm farming at home is really good for the environment.”

“Most people are recycling now and composting is picking up in the same way. Worm farming is really hands on and fun for children because they can see the food breakdown and then see how it can be used as fertiliser for the soil. Educators like Jodi are fabulous advocates for our community.”

Miss Purdie, a single mum, became a PORSE Educator four years ago so she could be at home with Cooper and run a business at the same time.

“I have learnt so much over the years through educating children. People always respect what you are doing, and there is wonderful community support”.

Worm farming is not the only environment friendly activity Miss Purdie does with her PORSE children. She teaches them that fixing things is a more sustainable solution than replacing them, even if it’s more expensive to do so.

“We got new wheels for four of our bikes and it cost the same as if I had replaced six bikes, but the lesson was more valuable than the money and was a great excuse to get tools out and develop our mechanical aptitude”.

Most things in this single mum’s home are recycled and she has come up with some innovative ideas on how to recycle plastic. Miss Purdie and her little apprentices are currently in the process of putting bread tags to good use in the form of collages. Making a dragon entirely from bread tags is a favourite activity amongst the children and an ocean theme mural made from milk bottle tops is in the collecting phase.

“We’ve been on a mission to collect as many milk bottle tops as possible. My family and the children’s families all helped with the crusade and once we got a good collection we started dividing them into the colours to get ready for the mural. It ended up being great practice for the children to learn their colours too. I love any opportunity to be environmentally conscious and educational at the same time!”

ENDS

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