So This is What It’s Like to Work for a Living

Business is good, but my legs are sore. I’m in desperate need of a backrub. And a bubble bath.

Okay, focus. Eyes up here.

Where was I?

In this economy, I’m not turning away a single client. I also know better than to complain because record layoffs mean plenty of people out there would love to trade places with me.

Still. I’m tired.

Instead of slacking here completely, I’m going to post an article I wrote for an education magazine (delivered monthly to a school in Georgia or Florida near you.)

Enjoy. Or not. Completely up to you.

Green Solutions for Waste

Mishon Glisson, an Autism Spectrum Disorders Teacher at Sickles High School in Tampa, Florida, was sick of the waste.

Every morning, she takes her autistic students on their regular outing to clean the cafeteria. Toward the end of last year, she and her aide, Susan Baker, noticed a lot of food left on the tables.

“The problem was getting out of hand,” Glisson said.

Disgusted, Glisson wondered what she could do with food that had been half-eaten?

Her aide had an idea.

Susan Baker suggested they take the food over to the agriculture department and feed the animals. Baker reasoned that Pebbles the pig, Bo the cow, and several chickens wouldn’t care if the food had been discarded. Putting leftovers to good use might save the agriculture department some money and would definitely save space in the dumpsters. Glisson loved the idea and talked to Julie Brashear, the agriculture teacher, who gave the plan two enthusiastic thumbs up.

The animals are fed every week during gym. Coach Penny Heid takes the autistic students to a special designed P.E. class, which includes walks over to the agriculture area. The students love the walks and are always especially excited to see the animals. They always make sure to take along several bags of food that they’ve collected all week.

As excited as the students get, nothing compares with the way the animals react.

“It is absolutely amazing,” Glisson said. “The animals respond like the kids are their parents. They come running to the front of the pens and several allow us to to pet them.”

Glisson and her students don’t bother with leftover meat because they don’t want the animals getting sick. Instead they take all the discarded biscuits, pancakes, and doughnuts they can find. They also try to collect a lot of potatoes. Pebbles can’t get enough of them. Since this is an especially unpopular item with students, plenty of potatoes are left behind on tables and the autistic students gather them up for the hungry pig.

Glisson and Baker are hoping that this trend catches on at other schools where hungry animals will gladly accept food discarded by students.

Now I gotta go feed my animals. Later peeps.

Tags: green solutions, schools