Greenwich Community Gardens presents “The Food Asset Potential” – What “Zero Waste” Means and How it Connects to Food, on Monday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Greenwich Library, Cole Auditorium. Guests will view three engaging and informative shorts: The Soil Story, The Compost Story and ReFED. A panel discussion will follow moderated by Thomas McQuillan of Baldor Specialty Foods. The panel includes Sherill Baldwin of CT DEEP, Amy McCrae Kessler of Turning Earth, and Michelle Sterling, Scarsdale Conservation Advisory Council. Tickets are $10. Students are free. To purchase tickets and for more information go to Eventbrite Tickets Food Asset Potential or greenwichcommunitygardens.org
This goal of the presentation is to educate, inform and inspire Greenwich residents to adopt simple actions to eliminate “food waste” and to understand the importance of diverting organic matter out of the waste stream. Topics discussed will be Baldor’s Zero Organics to Landfill company-wide goal in 2019, DEEP’s work to support managing organics in CT and how social impact investors are leveraging capital, funding viable solutions.
“Food assets are ours to cherish and utilize one hundred percent of the time or squander and allow them to negatively impact our environment and bottom line,” says Thomas McQuillan, Vice President, Corporate Strategy of Sustainability and Culture at Baldor Specialty Food.
“Let’s take a fresh look at food and how we can put to use all our food assets, waste nothing and learn how this change can put more healthy food into the hands of the food insecure, create additional profits at home and in our businesses and help to preserve and protect our environment for future generations.”according to Thomas.
This panel includes:
Thomas McQuillan
Vice President, Corporate Strategy of Sustainability and Culture at Baldor Specialty Food is a transformational executive with 25+ years of successful business leadership experience and a demonstrated skill for turning around underperforming organizations and spearheading acquisition and business integration initiatives. In 2015, Thomas joined Baldor Specialty Foods, Inc. located in the Bronx, New York and serves on the company’s executive team. As Director of Food Service Sales and Sustainability, Thomas is tasked with creating the strategic plan to make Baldor more Sustainable. Thomas spearheaded the SparCs (scraps spelled backwards) initiative to reduce food waste throughout the company. Baldor’s sustainability initiatives are also focused on overall waste reduction throughout the organization and the company has launched a number of initiatives to become more energy efficient.
Sherill Baldwin
Source Reduction and Recycling Analyst; Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection In sustainable materials management for over 30 years and at DEEP since 2008, Sherill Baldwin’s current projects include the RecycleCT Foundation, CT WRAP initiative, and product stewardship programs. In Michigan while Vice Chair of the Composting Council, she provided educational programs to municipalities looking to expand their leaf composting operations. In Massachusetts, she provided technical assistance to farms and large organic waste generators and workshops to farmers, school representatives, and residents. She received an M.S., Resource Development, Michigan State University, a certificate from the Compost School, University of Maine, and a B.A., Solid Waste Management, UMASS/Amherst.
Amy McCrae Kessler
EVP, Head of Environmental & Regulatory Affairs and a Founding Member of Turning Earth, LLC. Ms. McCrae Kessler leads Turning Earth’s local, state and federal permitting initiatives and works across multiple disciplines of project development including siting, design team management and public outreach, among others. She is a member the Board of Directors of the American Biogas Council where she serves as Co- Chair of the Council’s Federal Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Committee & Co-Chair of the AD Co-Products Working Group. A Member of the Board since 2010, she served as Vice Chair of the ABC from 2014-2015, 2012-2013; Co-Chair AD Co-Products Working Group 2014-present; Co- Chair Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Committee from 2013-present, 2010-2012, building the ABC’s most popular program from the ground up.
Michelle Sterling
Scarsdale Conservation Advisory Council has been instrumental in launching sustainability initiatives throughout Scarsdale and Westchester County. She initiated a food scrap recycling program in one of the Scarsdale Schools in 2012 and has since helped all seven Scarsdale Schools, and many other schools throughout Westchester, start their own food scrap recycling programs. In 2017 she helped the town of Scarsdale launch a food scrap recycling program which has been a model program for other municipalities. 12 other Westchester municipalities have now started food scrap recycling programs based on the Scarsdale model and with her assistance. In addition to zero waste programs, Michelle has worked on a number of other successful sustainability initiatives in Scarsdale such as the LED Streetlight conversion project, furniture donation, take it or leave it shed, textile recycling, Scarsdale Parks Department recycling implementation and expansion, and updating Scarsdale’s tree code.
Greenwich Community Gardens
Greenwich Community Gardens is a 501c3 non-profit organization. We create organic community gardening opportunities and support a sustainable food culture. We promote community building, garden education, environmental health, and wellness. For more information, contact greenwichcommunitygardens.org.
