Sustain Mizzou sets semester goals

Projects include a local food drive, RecycleInk and Recycled Notebooks.

By Audrey Freiberger

Published Jan. 29, 2010

Sustain Mizzou held its opening meeting Wednesday to discuss plans for the semester. Before the meeting started, attendees ate food from local businesses, such as Root Cellar, B & B Bagel Company and Rigazzi's.

Former treasurer and graduate student Jonathan Klamm began by explaining the change in food.

"We used to serve pizza, but we put our money where our mouth was and got more local, organic food," Klamm said.

Besides making good on their goal to support organic farmers and local businesses, group members have many other projects in the works this semester, including a local food drive, research garden, RecycleInk and Recycled Notebooks.

Dressed as an apple, Vice President of Programming Tina Casagrand introduced the project she is heading, "Local Food for Local People," a food drive scheduled to take place March 21 to March 27. During this time, volunteers will dress in vegetable costumes to raise money.

"The money we raise will be used to buy food from local farmers and we will give it to local food pantries," Casagrand said. "We'll be providing people with healthy, organic, nutritious food."

Senior Kurt Heine said the Sustain Mizzou Research Garden, located on the corner of Ash and St. Joseph streets, has expanded this year.

The garden relies on students from the environmental studies class, along with volunteers, to compost, till, plant and harvest the garden. Groups plan to start planting in late March to early April this year.

"We have a big one-acre plot where we used to have a 16th of an acre," Heine said. "We need to get together and prove we can farm this plot."

RecycleInk is a project that recycles ink cartridges, which contain toxic chemicals that can be harmful to the environment if not disposed of properly. Sustain Mizzou members and volunteers will collect ink cartridges left at the numerous small recycling containers around campus, and bring them to the large collection bins where they will be recycled.

Recycled Notebooks, a project headed this semester by freshman Sidney Billstein, collects used paper and cardboard products to construct environmentally-friendly notebooks. The covers of the notebooks are made from used cereal boxes.

"We sort it and weight it and make notebooks and sell them at the bookstore or at an outreach table we'll be starting in March," Billstein said. "Last year we made 100 at the first meeting."

Sustain Mizzou's Stream Team will have its first big event, a bush honeysuckle removal, in late February. With volunteers, the group will locate bush honeysuckle on an adopted stretch of Hinkson Creek in the Hinkson Creek Recreation Area, cut it down and then treat the area so that the invasive species doesn't grow back.

Sustain Mizzou President Emily Albertson said her personal goal for the year was to be more organized. She also has aspirations for Sustain Mizzou.

"I would like to engage our members more and have projects they want to do," Albertson said.