At Eisenhower Elementary School in Boulder Valley School District, a simple idea is helping students rethink their everyday habits and their impact.
Through the Cafeteria to Farm Compost Cup Competition, students are taking the lead in improving waste practices at their school. What started as a way to support a district-wide composting initiative has become something more: a shared effort to turn daily routines into meaningful action.
Florence | EcoEagles Green Team
Led by teacher Marti Hirsch and powered by the EcoEagles Green Team, the project invites students to track compost, participate in friendly competition, and learn where their waste goes and why it matters. As one student, Florence, and the EcoEagles put it:
“You don’t need anything extreme to make a difference; you just need to make it matter.”
Their approach is simple, but powerful:
- Make it a Game: Turn a chore into a competition like our Compost Cup. When it’s a game, students aren’t just following rules, they’re playing to win!
- Find Your Champions: Partner with your principal, custodians, and kitchen staff. Their support is the backbone of any green project.
- Keep it Local: Knowing exactly where your waste goes makes the impact real. Feeding a local farm feels much better than filling a far-off landfill.
Through this work, students are not only building better habits, they’re realizing something bigger:
“Even a first grader has the power to stop a climate super-villain like methane.”
At Eisenhower, sustainability isn’t just something students learn about, it’s something they live, together. This story reminds us that, with our support, young people are already shaping the future and bringing hope at a time when it’s deeply needed.
If you’d like to support and grow efforts like this, visit Fearless Future and be part of what’s possible: