The Co-op Q&A With Dara Fedrow
When you see Dara Fedrow working her shift at the store, ask her about compost!
Q: Where are you from? What do you do?
A: I grew up on Long Island and moved to Brooklyn two years ago. Currently, I am working with the NYC Compost Project as an Organics Coordinator. My job is to establish new food scrap drop-off sites around Brooklyn and compost all the collected material at Red Hook Community Farm, which is the largest compost site in the country run entirely on renewable energy.
Q: Where is the Compost Project’s closest compost drop-off to the Co-op?
A: The closest food scrap drop off to the Co-op is at the Clinton Avenue C subway entrance on Mondays, 7:30 am to 9:30 am, year round!
Q: What were some of your reasons for joining the Co-op?
A: I joined the Co-op because I wasn’t feeling fulfilled buying my food from grocery stores. Food is such a huge expense; I wanted to make sure my money was going to a cause I believed in. I love how the Co-op supports local farms, buys socially-responsible goods and fosters a sense of community. I joined the Park Slope Food Coop two years ago and joined the Greene Hill Co-op when I moved to Bed-Stuy in March.
Q: What shift do you work at the Co-op?
A: I am a floor attendant at the Co-op. I just attended a shift leader training and plan to use what I learned to manage more during my shift. I enjoy stocking the veggie displays and working on the compost whenever possible.
Q: What is your experience with composting?
A: I was first exposed to composting in college with the urban garden club. I was amazed that food and plant scraps could be turned into soil. After graduating, I worked on a farm and gained some more experience with composting, but it wasn’t until my most recent job that I have gained a true understanding of the process. It is all about the microbes! If you can give the aerobic microbes in your pile the proper conditions to thrive -- enough air, moisture, carbon and nitrogen -- then composting will happen!
Q: Do you have any advice for how Co-opers can compost at home? What's the easiest way?
A: There are two types of home composters: those with access to outdoor space and those without. If you have a sizable amount of outdoor space, then I’d suggest trying an outdoor system. Tumblers are effective at keeping away rodents and are easy to turn regularly.
If you are limited to an apartment, then I suggest a worm bin. This is essentially a big bin (think of a big Rubbermaid) with bedding, such as newspaper, and red wiggler worms. You feed these worms your food scraps every week and they poop out dark and crumbly vermicompost, valuable to anyone with plants. This bin can be kept inside and has no odors if taken care of properly. If interested, the Lower East Side Ecology Center has red wiggler worms for sale.
Q: What is your vision for the Co-op compost system?
A: I would really like to get the store composting 100 percent of its fruit and vegetable waste. I would also love to see a compost team created to be responsible for managing the three-bin system in the back. We recently applied a finished batch of our compost to the street trees surrounding the Co-op. To be able to do more community-oriented projects like this with our compost would be great!