Jackman's Harvest Festival

It's that time of year again!  It's time for Jackman's Harvest Festival!   It's one of our favourite events.   It's a great way to celebrate our schoolyard greening and eco school initiatives

It's on Friday, October 21, 5:30 - 8:30

Of course there will be lots of food... Popcorn, fresh lemonade,  apples. and of course, everyone's fall favourite... CHILI!    

And this year, we've got something extra special for you.   We're making a salad with our very own Jackman garden greens (lettuce, kale, swiss chard).   It doesn't get any fresher than that!  Drop by for a taste.  

Oh, and don't forget about the Bake Sale.  The Book Sale.  The Pumpkin Sale.  The Scarecrows.  And of course there will be lots of music and dancing. 

This year, we're working to make the festival a garbage-free event.  The lemonade cups are biodegradable   So are the bowls.   The forks are recyclable.   The food waste will be compostable.   There will be plenty of reusable cups to use for water.  No garbage cans needed at our event.  Nothing gets sent to the landfill.  As you know, Jackman takes waste reduction seriously.  Thanks for supporting our garbage free initiative.  

Jackman's Harvest Festival is definitely an event your won't want to miss!   See you all on Friday!

Garden Compost / City Compost

At Jackman, we've been composting for years.  We've been collecting apple cores, banana peels and other fruit and veggie scraps in silver buckets and carting them out to the school yard where we have 3 large compost containers.   That's where our 'garbage' transforms into beautiful rich soil.  It's nature's way of composting.  We call this Jackman's Garden Compost!  It's a win-win situation.   We win because we make less garbage.   And we win because we're creating healthy gardens at Jackman.

Now, the City of Toronto has invited schools to participate in the green bin organic waste program.   We call this our City Compost!   At Jackman, we are now asking everyone to stop throwing their paper towels and tissues in the garbage and put them in the city compost bins instead.   Simple.

Please Note:  We don't want kids to put their fruit in there.   They should save fruit and veggie scraps for our garden compost.   And we don't want kids to put their uneaten lunch food in there.   That's just wasteful.   "Just eat it" is our motto.   We're targeting paper towels and tissues in our city compost program.   In the near future, we'll also add city compost containers to the washrooms at Jackman.  

So, everyone now knows the difference between these two waste reduction programs. It's easy.  Here's a quick review...

Garden Compost... City Compost.  

Making less garbage is Jackman's eco goal.  Our Garden Compost and City Compost programs helps us accomplish that.   It's a small thing we can do to make a big difference.   Let's do everything we can to make less garbage.  

Make Less Garbage

This week at Jackman, we were encouraged to consider a very important eco goal.  We need to...Make Less Garbage!  This is achieved when we reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible.   Reduce means... making less garbage and using less 'stuff'.   We need to be more aware of the packaging that all our 'stuff' comes in.  Reuse means... using things again.  It's easy to pack a waste-free lunch with reusable containers, bring a reusable water bottle to school.  Reusable coffee cups too.  Recycle means... making things new again.   We can recycle papers and many other things at school.  We need to educate ourselves about what can and cannot be recycled.   Unfortunately, coffee cups and snack wrappers cannot be recycled.   

We also realize that composting is nature's way of recycling.   At Jackman we turn our apple cores, banana peelings and other fruit scraps into rich compost.   Then we use this compost in our gardens.  It's a win-win situation.   We win because we make less garbage.  We also win because our gardens are healthier.   

If we do our part in reducing, reusing and recycling as much as we can, then we'll be sending less waste to landfill.   Did you know that Toronto's landfill is 200km away, near London, Ontario?   We had a laugh when we discovered that Toronto's Landfill is called 'Green' Lane.  There's nothing 'green' about this landfill.  

We are committed to reducing our waste at Jackman.  Will you join us?