Mariposa kids really dig their new project




ORGANIC AND RECYCLED—Above, school garden specialist Ziva Santop oversees preparation of the Mariposa School vermicomposting bin, which uses worms to break down organic material such as food scraps. At right, student Mo Snyder is pleased with the results of the worm garden. Courtesy of Isabel Snyder

ORGANIC AND RECYCLED—Above, school garden specialist Ziva Santop oversees preparation of the Mariposa School vermicomposting bin, which uses worms to break down organic material such as food scraps. At right, student Mo Snyder is pleased with the results of the worm garden. Courtesy of Isabel Snyder

Everyone knows young kids like to get their hands dirty, but at the Mariposa School of Global Education in Agoura Hills, a little grime under the fingernails is a good thing.

Courtesy of Ziva Santop

Courtesy of Ziva Santop

Alicia Rothman’s third-grade students are digging into their studies and working with a vermicompost worm bin at the Agoura Hills school. Vermicomposting (vermi is the Latin word for worm) is the practice of using worms to break down organic material including food scraps. The resulting compost, good for the school garden, consists of worm castings (worm manure) and decomposed food scraps.

In 2016, California passed a law that requires schools and businesses to recycle their organic (food, lawn and garden) waste. Parent Ziva Santop, Mariposa’s school garden specialist, came up with the idea of using vermicomposting to get the job done.

Her husband built the worm bin using a $500 donation from Aldi grocery story. One of the school’s third-grade parents donated the red wiggler worms being used to make the compost.

In addition to food scraps from student lunches and the school cafeteria, the worms munch on nutritious leftover pulp donated by Grabbagreen, a healthy fast food restaurant in Thousand Oaks. As the students harvest the worm castings and use them as compost to nourish their garden, they will be witnessing the full circle of sowing, growing, harvesting, eating and composting, Santop said.

The kids are taking the recycling job one step further. Rather than throwing away shredded paper from classrooms, they are using it as bedding for the worms.

Mariposa has an organic school garden and orchard with over 20 fruit trees that serve as an outdoor classroom and living laboratory.

“The students not only learn about agriculture, seed-saving, botany and worm composting, they also learn the importance of stewardship and the connection to mother earth and to our food,” Santop said.

Last year’s fourth-grade students planted a food forest in the orchard where they learned about pollinators and nitrogen-fixing plants. The kindergartners planted vegetables in straw bales in their kinder-garden.

The first-grade students planted bulbs around the trees that serve as natural weed suppressors. They will also be sowing lettuce seeds.

The third-graders, who are studying farming and grains, planted ancient grains with seeds donated by Kandarian Organic Farms from the Central Coast. They will plant potatoes in their next project.

“Studies have shown that school gardens enhance academic achievement, promote healthy lifestyles, instill a sense of peace and encourage community and social development,” said Santop, an Agoura Hills resident who has a professional background in permaculture, the practice of using agriculture as means to work for the earth’s natural ecosystem, not against it.