During Winter and Spring, working at the farm was really challenging for someone who comes from a hot environment and hasn’t had any experience in the field before. Within that time, we worked in the production of compost coming from the cafeteria and I was quite surprised by the amount of food waste that our school produces in one week. As a matter of fact, I guess that every Wednesday it could be possible to find around 5 or 4 buckets of food waste. The good news from this experience is that we learned a couple of steps that I personally was not aware of in order to have a zero organic waste farm on campus:

• The first step which I personally think is the easier one is to collect all the compost from the cafeteria. This step is simple, but the amount of food waste produced every day is insane! More than that, I think that it’s necessary to create awareness to people of the amount of waste that it’s produced. In fact, looking at it reminds me of people dying from hunger in less developed regions, but the awareness raised by my co-years during the earth day was phenomenal. I also personally come from a place where the amount of trash thrown into the garbage in the capital (Luanda) is the main reason for diseases and watching how me and my fellows worked in the collection of food waste made I think of creating the same initiative in when I go back home for a more sustainable future.

• The second step we learned was to identify the resource available for the region that could bring a better compost. In the case of this farm, I was amazed about the way that we could combine wood ships from the surroundings, especially coming from the dead trees in the forest (that were a lot) and the food waste available for us. This made me think of possible challenges that I would face to fi, d of course, create awareness in my community in order to get the help that it requires for a waste-free environment .a best fit resource that can create the compost with the proteins and nutrients that are necessary. I would have to

• Another step we learned was mixing the wood chips and the food waste. That was personally the grossest but at the same time the most empowering thing that I’ve ever done in my entire life. I never imagined myself doing something like this before. While you do it you enjoy not only the good conversations that arise with my fellows, but you also think to start thinking about many ways that waste could be reduced in an effective way so that we don’t have to do it again! And again, I guess that raising awareness to the people in school is the best way of in order to reduce food waste.

• Once we’ve mixed the substances and we have the compost formed with a kinda chocolate powder look, we use it to grow more plants in the farm. There’s no more satisfying feeling than seeing the trash being transformed into something beautiful that we can actually take advantage of. It’s also so satisfying to see how group work is also really effective. I am personally really happy when I go to the cafeteria and I have the proud of saying “I helped grow this food we are eating”.

This experience in farm helped me to understand that it’s not possible to have sustainable future without the proportional help and commitment of everyone, and I confess that this I going to be one of my biggest challenges when I go back home because people don’t put themselves accountable for the environmental issues in the country. Farm is Fun!