At a glance
The UW Farm seeks to add a lid to its vermicompost bin to prevent rodents from accessing the food waste. The vermicompost… Read full summary
- Funding received
- 2024-2025
- Small
- Awarded
- $5,000
- Funding partners
-
- Services and Activities Fee (SAF)
- Website & social links
The UW Farm seeks to add a lid to its vermicompost bin to prevent rodents from accessing the food waste. The vermicompost facility, funded by CSF in 2017, reduces food waste, provides compost, and offers educational opportunities.
Rodent issues have increased since the addition of bread and pastries from the UW Food Pantry and Husky Grind, particularly in winter. Current pest control measures include traps and regular maintenance, but a custom lid is needed for effective, long-term prevention. The Vermicompost Intern will oversee installation and coordination with UW Facilities.
The UW Farm seeks to amend the existing CSF funded vermicompost facility with the addition of a lid to cover the worm bin. The goal of adding this lid is to prevent rats and other rodents from entering the food waste vessel inside the vermicompost building.
The unit was funded by the Campus Sustainability Fund in 2017 as a food waste reduction initiative that also provides educational and leadership opportunities to students as well as composted materials to the UW Farm, UW Grounds, and others. The bin was completed in 2021 and is functional, maintained by UW Farm Vermicompost Interns. To date, 2024 marks the fourth vermicompost intern, mentored by the UW Farm Manager.
However, the last two interns have discovered that at certain times of year, rats and mice enter the building and bin to eat the worms in addition to the food waste. This started with phase two of the program when the UW Food Pantry and Husky Grind at Mercer Court began sending bread and pastries, in addition to coffee grounds and vegetable waste. Rodent activity peaks in the winter months when the UW Farm sends less food waste, and the majority instead comes from the UW Food Pantry and Husky Grind.
Our control methods so far to reduce vectors for disease include working with the UW pest control contact: “Stop Bugging Me Now” to establish rat traps around the vermicompost building. Food waste is put in the bin every 24 hours, and is always covered by mulch to prevent odors.
Our next step, as recommended by our contact at “Stop Bugging Me Now”, as well as Megan Gourley and Abebe Aberra from Environmental Health & Safety is to fabricate a lid to the worm bin. We reached out to UW Facilities and met with a representative who gave us a quote for a custom lid made of expanded metal with a pulley system to allow for use by any individual regardless of physical ability.
The quote we received from UW Facilities, the unit that would fabricate the lid, is $5,500.00. The UW Farm would contribute $500 from its own funding and the remaining $5,000.00 is the amount requested from the Campus Sustainability Fund, because we realize this is the funding ceiling for mini-grants. The Vermicompost Intern will facilitate the installation and be he liaison between UW Facilities and the UW Farm Manager.
Phoebe Clifton
Project lead
- pclifton@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
- Years
- 2 year(s) remaining at UW
- Affiliated groups
- PoE
Perry Acworth
Team member
- persis@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Staff
- Affiliated groups
- UW Botanic Gardens, SEFS, COE
Todd Carey
Monitors waste records
- recycle@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- UW Recycling
Request amount and budget
Plans for financial longevity
The UW Farm website will be expanded to include a vermicompost section to provide information about its function and pest control methods.
The Vermicompost Intern will improve the vermicompost guidebook by adding new procedures for opening and closing the lid. Information will be included about repairing and replacing parts of the lid as needed. The UW Farm assumes responsibility for day to day maintenance of the lid.
The goal for the implementation of the lid is to have it installed by March 21st, the end of Winter Quarter because the term of current Vermicompost Intern, Phoebe Clifton, will be complete.
Once funded, UW Facilities estimates 40 hours of work to complete the assembly and installation of the expanded metal lid and pulley system.
Plans for long-term project management
The intention of the UW Farm Vermicompost internship is to provide a UW student with an opportunity to learn about the relationship between food production and waste. A new intern is chosen annually, this provides students an opportunity to lead the program. Each intern learns how to maintain the facility and teach others. For every new intern, the UW Farm Manager advertises the internship via the farm’s website.
The vermicompost facility was implemented by UW Grounds with the UW Farm as a partner to maintain the facility. To maintain the continuity of project, the current Vermicompost Intern, Phoebe Clifton, will be present on the farm to facilitate the transfer to the next intern.
Problem statement
The vermicompost facility is intended to capture produce waste from the UW Farm. Waste from the UW Food Pantry and Husky Grind at Mercer Court were piloted in 2023 and are now part of the food for the worms. This prevents the food from requiring transportation off campus, and closes the UW food cycle.
The vermicompost produced is used by the UW Farm, Botanic Gardens, and Grounds as a soil addition to produce and plants on campus. This decreases the outputs needed to sustain the farm, as well as the carbon footprint created by sourcing soil amendments.
These sustainability initiatives are completely dependent on the well-being of the worms in the unit, because without them there is no vermicompost. In order to protect them and ensure that they make the bin as productive as possible, they must be protected from the rats that disrupt their habitat and prey on them. The food safety lid will create a dependable location for them to break down food and effectively meet the goals of the original vermicompost facility.
Problem context
The food safety lid is a direct addition to the vermicompost facility that has already processed thousands of pounds of food waste since its establishment, with over 3,000 lbs in 2024 alone. The lid will allow the worm populations to thrive, which in turn increases the amount of food waste that can be processed, and the amount of nutritious vermicompost produced to help green spaces around the UW campus flourish. The UW Farm Vermicompost Intern also benefits from the facility working at its highest capacity so they are able to full engage with all aspects of the UW food system, including production, retail, donation, waste, and environmental impacts. When the unit is able to receive a high quantity of food waste, it requires more manpower to process, which increases student volunteer engagement with the program and collaboration with farm staff.
Communication tactics and tools
The UW Farm shares information about the vermicompost facility and other sustainability projects 12 months out of the year through several routes of communication. Over 1,000 students across 3 quarters a year visit the Center for Urban Horticulture and Mercer Court farm sites for educational field trips. NUTR 302, ENVIR 240, ENVIR 340, and ESRM 210 all have labs that learn about soil and vermicompost. The farm supports 175 Community Engagement and Leadership Education learners each year from these and other classes that work on the farm each week during their quarter. Corporate and nonprofit groups provide the farm with 500 one-time community volunteers per year.
Each week the UW Farm sends out a newsletter to 2,000 subscribers with another 5,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram. The UW Food Pantry and Husky Grind at Mercer Court provide food waste to be processed through the vermicompost system, so the employees at these sites are able to passively learn about the facility.
Outreach communication plan
Part of the UW Farm Vermicompost Intern’s job is to communicate via email with UW Botanic Gardens, UW Grounds, and the Dirty Dozen RSO to offer nutrient-rich vermicompost to apply to plants and crops around the UW campus and farm. Due to the demand for vermicompost, these groups all benefit from the optimization of the unit, which would be made possible by being pest-free with the addition of a functional lid.
Student involvement
See above information about communication tactics. Through CELE, students have the opportunity to assist the Vermicompost Intern with feeding the worms and fertilizing farm crops with the vermicompost. The vermicompost facility also created a specific internship in which a student leads the maintenance of the unit and related educational content such as teaching peers and community members. The position can be paid or done for credit, and also provides access to grant writing experience, capstone projects, and mentorship from experienced farm staff.