Heather Kim

The Circle School

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
598 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

20

meatless or vegan meals

consumed

Heather's actions

Food

Keep Track of Wasted Food

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will keep a daily log of food I throw away during the EcoChallenge, either because it went bad before I ate it, I put too much on my plate, or it was scraps from food preparation.

COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Smaller Portions

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.

COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Reduce Animal Products

#4 Plant-Rich Diet

I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Materials

Mulch the Base of Trees and Plants

#46 Water Saving - Home

I will prevent water runoff and increase absorbency by mulching the base of trees and plants in my yard.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Materials

Eliminate Toxic Plastics

#47 Bioplastic

I will avoid buying toxic plastics, including polycarbonate, polystyrene and polyvinyl and instead replace them with bioplastic or durable options.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Heather Kim 4/25/2018 11:55 AM
This challenge has been a great reminder of all the ways that our family can do even better to care for our precious planet and resources!

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Heather Kim 4/21/2018 6:44 AM
So I knew that we were occasionally moving food from the fridge to the compost bin... I had no idea how much until asked to keep track of it. This is a great way to make some changes and bring more awareness to how I grocery shop. For us now, perishables are going to be bought the day I use them or the day before and in careful quantities for this family of 3. Since starting this list I now realize that Costco has caused massive damage for us with regards to waste. Although the price is right, the waste adds up when we can't finish perishables or even frozen foods before they turn to 2-3 year old ice blocks shoved to the back of the freezer.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials

Name some of the human activities impacting the health of water systems, both locally (your watershed) and globally (freshwater and oceans). What can you do to improve the health of water systems?
Heather Kim 4/10/2018 12:25 PM
Name some of the human activities impacting the health of water systems, both locally (your watershed) and globally (freshwater and oceans). What can you do to improve the health of water systems?

An easy step is to change to use/buy only gentle more natural cleaning products to prevent chemical changes to streams/watersheds. To be super careful about what goes down the drain in our home. To maintain cars carefully so they don't leak oil or other ick into the water systems. Rain water catch/gray water utilization programs

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials

What single-use items (e.g. straws, coffee cups, vegetable bags, plastic bags) do you regularly use? What could be substituted instead?
Heather Kim 4/10/2018 12:23 PM
Super good reflection question. We had been using a lot of plastic grocery bags bc we re-use them as trash bags. Opting to use our re-useable bags at the grocery store left us still trying to figure out what to do about wet trash...

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- The Circle School Possums 4/10/2018 12:38 PM
  J was very vocal in our classroom discussion today about the 3 Rs- reduce, reuse, recycle- and how your family reuses plastic bags all the time.
  
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Heather Kim 4/09/2018 5:59 AM
I need to clean out the fridge today.... Unfortunately jumped into a Whole30 right after hitting Costco and have discovered that soy is not my friend and is in everything. Bringing unopened Tofu up to school and leaving it in the fridge for anyone interested! This is a step towards preventing waste.

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Heather Kim 4/05/2018 3:04 PM
Bean and cheese tacos!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. Where would you rather use this money?
Heather Kim 4/04/2018 11:04 AM
I would rather use the money to buy land.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

Fun fact: Your brain and stomach register feelings of fullness after about 20 minutes of eating. While dishing food out, we tend to load our plates with more than we need. Using smaller plates helps to mitigate this. Aside from the environmental benefits, what other benefits might come out of this?
Heather Kim 4/04/2018 11:04 AM
Over-eating stresses the liver and pancreas. Longevity has long been associated with eating less. The skinny rat ~30% below typical body weight lives longer than the fat one in experimental trials.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

What do you think contributes to people in North America eating more meat than other countries, and what does this say about North American values and ways of living? How do we start shifting a meat-focused food culture?
Heather Kim 4/04/2018 11:03 AM
Wealth has been historically associated with eating meat. In capitalism, eating a juicy steak means you've done better than the other guy.

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