The purpose of the Eco-Challenge series is to raise awareness of our environmental impact and to encourage our students to be more mindful of our natural environment. The Renewable Energy Committee (REC) will be posing many Eco-Challenges to the CRMS community.

The first CRMS Eco-Challenge held the week of Sept. 17 was a challenge to eat only food organically grown in the CRMS garden. The purpose of this Eco-Challenge was to demonstrate the possibility of sustaining ourselves and to raise awareness among the CRMS and other communities of our ability to be independent of outside food resources. For an average of 2 days each, 10 students and 1 faculty member participated, and consumed 70 pounds of food, including potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, pine, potatoes, pumpkin, snow peas, lettuce, potatoes and organic eggs donated from a CRMS faculty’s own chickens. We allowed ourselves a few items not grown in the garden, which were: water, salt and vegetable oil. Participating students and faculty were: Spaff Ackerley, Mei Bailey, Josh Buchman, Karl Fallenious, Forbes Fisher, Lila Hemsell, Emma Juniper, Elly Krueger, Martin Krueger, Aaron Sandfield, and David Thorpe. Thank you to Linda Halloran and the garden work crews for nurturing the gardens and supporting us throughout the week.