Live Green! celebrates earth month, Earth Day and 10 year anniversary
Jordyn DuBois/Iowa State Daily
Ian Crowl, a junior in aerospace engineering, smiles with a snake at the Earth Day Celebration. Booths at the event had many different things for students to do and hear to learn about conservation and sustainable living. The event was held Thursday on the South side lawn in front of Parks Library and had many booths promoting sustainable living.
April 25, 2019
The Live Green! Initiative celebrated Earth Day, 10 Years of Living Green on the Iowa State Campus as well as Iowa State’s many sustainability organizations, initiatives and accomplishments. The event had displays from sustainability-focused student, campus and community organizations and businesses. They also offered free bike tune-ups, snacks, giveaways and refreshments.
Organizations in attendance ranged from 88.5 the KURE to St. Jude Up ‘Til Dawn to Dance Marathon. One of the most popular tables was the table with a tank of compost. Michael Moreno, a biosystems engineering major, is the owner of the project. In the tank there was a mixture of many things including, but not limited to: food scraps, hair, packaging and worms. Moreno lives in Freddy Court with two roommates and still manages to have over 70 plants.
“I am a gardener and I love growing plants,” Moreno said. “I was buying compost, and realized we produce waste so I should just make it instead of buying it.”
Another student-run business is the Good Earth Student Farm. This is a farm that is also supported by members of the Iowa State Community. There are two kinds of members of the farm: work-share and full-share. Both of these kinds of members receive large baskets of produce from May to June. Erika Rodbell is a “work-share” member. This means she pays a $50 membership fee and volunteers three hours a week from May to October.
“Full-Share members pay $350 to receive the produce without volunteering,” Rodbell said. “Membership is limited to only Iowa State Community members, because their are a number of farms like us in the Ames area that we don’t want to compete with.”
Another business in attendance was Cafe el Zapote. This is a fair trade company that sells coffee grounds, which are produced by farmers in Honduras. All of their proceeds go back to the community of El Zapote in Honduras. Most of the volunteers are college students, and Heather Diehl is one of them.
“All we do is help the farmers and their families,” Diehl said. “Not only are you helping them, but your experience here assists in personal growth also.”
