Staff Report
Each year, Dunn School welcomes a special group of residents — three pigs that live in a pen near the Middle School.
The curly-tailed omnivores are the centerpiece of the school’s student-led “pig-posting” (as opposed to composting) program, where food scraps from the kitchen are collected and fed to the pigs every day. The program is supervised by STEM teacher and Environmental Sustainability Coordinator Beth McCoy.
“Having the pigs on campus helps us reduce the amount of waste we send to the landfill,” McCoy said. “Each pig on average eats about seven pounds of food per day. If you do the math, this allows us to prevent about 3,000 pounds of food waste — one and a half tons — from going to the landfill each year.”
Organized by senior Eli Jensen, the food is carted to the pigpen on a bicycle specially designated for pig food deliveries.
“Although we’ve all been told to try and eat everything we put on our plates, this is not always the case,” she continued. “Instead of scraping our leftovers into the trash to add to the growing figure of 72 billion pounds of food waste sent off to U.S. landfills annually, our waste can now provide nourishment for our new little friends.”
The private elementary and high school in Los Olivos, started as a boys school in 1957, was originally called The Valley School. It has since changed to co-ed enrollment
For more information, log onto www.dunnschool.org.
