Podcast: Download (50.6MB)

[part 4 of 4] Snak Sak

newlygreens: Show Notes for Episode 1
Cool Schools
Air Date: Nov 2008/

Show Summary

In this episode we take a look at how the ideals of personal responsibility, and stewardship are being introduced to our children in K-12 education. Specifically we are going to tour a couple schools that are making it a point to introduce green thinking in creative ways.

Snak Sak

Mom-U-Factured! That’s what Sabine Percelay, creator of the Snak Sak tells us about her newest product. She began producing them when her oldest son told her about a contest his first grade class was participating in at school.

If you watched our Cool Schools episode you know that the 1st grade class at Watchung School in Montclair, NJ recently initiated a garbage reduction contest. This contest was the brainchild of teacher Amy Armstrong who wanted to show the students how much waste they created and therefore how much went to our landfills. In an effort to reduce the waste going to our landfills, the students were to come up with creative ways to reduce their own personal waste. First they would weigh all of the garbage from lunch period every day for one week. Then, after putting their reduction ideas into action, they would weigh the garbage again to see if they were able to reduce the amount.

When Sabine heard about this she immediately began to think about how she could reduce her son’s waste. Then she began to consider the brown paper bag that he took to school every day for his snack. The school required that the snack be separated from the lunches for ease of use, so every day her son would take a brown bag in addition to his lunch box. When she began doing the math, this is what she found:
Brown Bags Used and Thrown Away per One First Grader:

• 5 brown bags per week
• 20 brown bags per month
• 200 brown bags per year (based on a 10-month school year)

Brown Bags Used and Thrown Away per One Class of 25 Students:

• 125 brown bags per week
• 500 brown bags per month
• 5,000 brown bags per year (based on a 10-month school year)

Total Brown Bags Used and Thrown Away for Watchung Elementary School:

• 2,250 brown bags per week
• 9,000 brown bags per month
• 90,000 brown bags per year (based on a 10-month school year)

After seeing those numbers it seemed logical for her to replace these brown bags with something reusable. Her love of sewing and of bandana’s brought her to the idea of the bandana “Snak Sak”. She made one for each child in her son’s class and not only did they win the contest, she got such an amazing reaction from the school and the other parents that she decided to make more! And that’s why today, if you live in the Montclair NJ area, you can find Sabine’s Snak Saks at the local Whole Foods and a couple of nearby toy stores. To learn more about how to get your very own Snak Sak.

And to learn more about why green schools are cool visit BuildGreenSchools.Org.

It’s a great educational site created by the US Green Building Council to raise awareness about the advantages and the need to build greener schools.
Until next time, keep thinking green. It’s good for the earth and it’s good for you…

Mevio {Mevio-6bfaefd974e1e8a0a2f0b1519fc9b75f}