The Zeller Foundation and Recycle Montana teamed up to establish a grant program that awarded funding for the implementation of waste reduction and composting programs in public and private K-12 schools. 

2024 Winner of the Composting Grant!!!

Big Sky High School - Missoula FFA receives Recycle Montana Composting Grant

Big Sky High School, the Missoula FFA, and Missoula Agricultural Center were recently awarded $1000 to further their efforts in composting at the School House Meats operation. According to Kristy Rothe, the Agricultural Teacher, “Schoolhouse Meats began processing livestock 5 years ago. Located at the Missoula Agriculture Center, it is the only high school state inspected meat processing facility in the country. Instead of discarding the offal at a landfill, the blood, organs, bones & hides from the processed animals are being composted at the school farm to be used as fertilizer for the hay fields.”

The grant proposal included the purchase of a $500 composting thermometer and moisture probe. The application stated it would allow the Missoula Agricultural Center to better manage the compost, making the time it takes to break down the offal into fertilizer shorter. Candi Zion, Executive Director of Recycle Montana stated, “Recycle Montana has been focusing on agricultural efforts to promote recycling and composting. Our Board was so impressed by the proposal that they voted to give an additional $500 to the group to help defray further costs.”

Schoolhouse Meats

The 2023 winners are:

LaMotte School- Bozeman

Through the partnership with Happy Trashcan Curbside Composting, students will learn about waste reduction and how they can contribute by composting their school lunch scraps and snack leftovers. Keeping this waste out of landfills is essential to the environment and also in minimizing issues with local bears whose habitat is shared by the school’s location on Bear Creek. Students will also use the fertilized soil that will be created using their food scraps to fertilize their school garden when planting in the spring of 2024.

Capital High School- Helena

They plan to increase composting at Capital High School to a weekly service, help one elementary school launch a composting program, and use compostable tableware in special events to investigate the feasibility of the use and collection of the tableware. They hope to inspire students at Kessler Elementary to continue composting and fund their program through student fundraising in the future. Large schools have difficulty dealing with a location for composting, longevity of projects based on the changeover of students and staff) and handling the amount of waste generated in multiple locations. Because of this, they will partner with a commercial facility that composts to increases sustainability.

Hellgate Elementary School District- Missoula

Their desire is to establish a magazine, paper and cardboard recycling/compost program to reduce these wastes by 60%. Ten students and one teacher will be responsible as the Recycling Team to weigh the product once weekly to meet the district goal to reduce waste. They plan to conduct educational sessions and create competitions between grade levels. The funding will be used to purchase bins appropriate for their use.