HERMON – Six New York state schools, including Hermon-DeKalb Central School, were recipients of a “Green Schools Grant” from the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (NYSAR3), the professional recyclers’ association for New York State.

Hermon DeKalb’s $500 award will be used to supplement the out of pocket cost needed to retrofit a shipping container to hold the high flow drum composter they will receive this summer from a North Country School Camp Treetops (NCT) grant as a result of a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The school seeks to replicate NCT’s pilot composter project by processing food waste generated by the school, SUNY Canton, and two local restaurants, as well as sawdust from Amish sawmills.

To further this project’s impact, the school district plans to integrate it into their culture and curriculum. HD’s multiple partnerships including NCT and the Adirondack North Country Association have made this project successful thus far and their continued support will ensure its long-term sustainability.

“We had a nice mix of interesting applications submitted from schools across New York state this round, with a total of $2,726 going to the six winners,” said Theresa Evans, chair of the NYSAR3 Green Schools grant program. “We had 26 applications this year. It was a record number of submissions, but made the selection process very difficult.”

NYSAR3 established a grant program for public and private schools Grades K-12 in 2005 for the purpose of providing up to $500 for seed, or start-up money for recycling/waste reduction/composting programs in public and private schools.

Since that time, over 100 NYS schools have benefitted financially from the program, to say nothing of the environmental benefits achieved by instituting recycling/waste reduction programs in schools.