RSD Compost Tea Party

In response to global warming and the mega-drought gripping most of the
Southwest, Rio School District students participate in a school-wide “compost
tea party” to shower their school grounds with an all-natural soil-enriching compost tea brew. Community experts and volunteers guide pre-kindergarten to 8th grade students to douse the school’s landscape, gardens, orchard and
play areas with the actively aerated compost tea in order to build healthy pesticide-free, nutrient-rich soil that will better sequester carbon from the air and save water. Students also participate in nature-based climate solution workshops led by experts from within the community.

Florencia Ramirez, Oxnard author of the book Eat Less Water, activist podcaster and director of the Pesticide Free Soil Project, a youth-led
organization says “The goal of the compost tea party is to engage the community to eliminate petroleum-based fertilizers and glyphosate pesticides, which the World Health Organization concluded in 2015 probably cause cancer in humans, Playgrounds, parks, and gardens are part of the solution to save water on this planet, because healthy soil that is untreated with chemicals can hold water up to 1,000 times more than treated soil. The compost tea party is an event to empower young people who want
to turn their hope for a healthy environment into action. ”

This event is important because it supports youngsters to learn how to take action in their world immediately through education and nature-based solutions. Part of our Rio school’s philosophy is to have strong community partnerships that are long-lasting, and this is an opportunity to begin a partnership that is grass-roots driven, where students are at the
center of the work.

In addition to preparing the compost tea and applying it to the school’s landscape and garden, students learn about soil science.