Rot Stars

Mary found us through volunteering at Jazz Age 2016! Mary was born and raised in Chinatown. Her aptitude for quantitative and analytical challenges allowed her to jump in this fall, helping us surpass our End of Year Fundraising goals, and to publish our first annual report. We look forward to growing our mission with Mary!

“I’ve learned that people have very different ideas about what is compostable. Case in point disposable diapers. Not just one, dozens. And the amount of food that is thrown away is astounding especially in the current economic times when there are so many people and families in need.” Patty Kallan, 2020 Zero Waste Island interns

Christine volunteers with all aspects of our Soil Start Farm and Lavender Field, including creating gorgeous multi-lingual plant ID signs and the banner for advocating permanent NYC Parks homes for LES Ecology Center and Big Reuse.

Annie Jiang joined us as an awesome volunteer this entire summer in various activities, including animal care, community compost builds, Open Hours, and farming. Here she describes her experience: “Volunteering at Earth Matter has made my summer so special and memorable. My favorite part of Earth Matter was definitely the community there. I always felt welcomed and it felt like a family. I remember being stung by a...

Hollis Hillhouse biked into our first site at Picnic Point, back in 2011. Curious of Nitza Wagoners' greening work, and our Green Guerillas' Youth Tillers' partners composting and triking adventures, it was our 12 hens and 3 roosters in their strides and tribulations that arrested her. When asked if she would like to come on another day and lend a hand, her response was "I have to think about it, but I most likely...

Chieko, a Japanese transplant, studies engineering at City College. On Saturdays during the summer you can find Chieko on the Farm, seeding, harvesting, weeding, setting up, and breaking down our “set". Chieko reminds us of the quote “work is love made visible” (Kahlil Gibran’s  The Prophet). Barbra is a social worker, who works with teenagers as her day job. She dedicates herself to connecting the “can–do” wires...

Sam Hahn is one of our New York Cares team leaders. He has been volunteering with us for two years in the capacity of coordinating volunteers at some of our zero waste events. This past season, Sam hosted our Saturday animal care shift. We asked Sam, who works in the financial sector, why he volunteers. He told us, “when Superstorm Sandy hit NYC, I was deeply affected.”  It was a low point for Sam so he decided to...

Meredith Levine Seaport resident Meredith Levine is this month’s rot star! Meredith eagerly and competently embraced the hard work of pitching yesterday’s food scraps onto the hot pile, and enhancing our CLC’s pad 1 garden this past summer with a touch of pizzazz that only a seasoned gardener can give. Meredith’s special gift of caring translates to all whom she comes in contact with. She loves all our critters and...

A Year of Service. Infinitae first became part of the Earth Matter family when she joined the "3-season" apprenticeship program in 2016, she became part of the inaugural City Service Corps sponsored by the NYCCompost Project. Over the past 10 months, Infinitae helped divert organic waste out of NYC's landfills by taking part in the NYC Organics Collection Program and working with us at our Compost Learning Center....

Lydia Baird first volunteered at Earth Matter’s CLC in 2014, as part of her quest to find a suitable muslin composting system for her College, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Located in Chelsea, Manhattan, Lydia envisioned a campus-wide waste reduction system for recycling muslin. Many FIT classes consist of students creating clothing designs and “draping”. A voluptuous amount of unbleached muslin (100%...

Animal Care Volunteers since May 2015 (From left to right starting on the top row): Lori, Meredith, Jennifer, and Courtney (May-August), Anessa, Jake, Sacha, Emily (August-November), Serena, Sharonne, Jiwon, and David (December-Present). My love for volunteering began in college and was one of the first things I got involved with upon moving to NYC. Initially, I was overwhelmed with options of organizations to get...

Connie, Mary + Christian worked the bean patch. Mary Ng joined our animal care volunteer group about a year ago signing up on our website to help out at the Vendy’s Awards event. She started coming on Sundays to help with Animal Care, then got officially trained by our Animal Care trainer, Hollis Hillhouse, and has been a regular volunteer ever since, coming throughout the winter months and putting in long days to...

Off-season graduate apprentices, Michelle and Imane, are two amazing women who are inclined to look for ways to improve their knowledge around helping to heal the earth, and understand how to implement these practices in their own lives. They bonded during their Earth Matter off-season apprenticeship. Soon after joining our apprenticeship in November, Michelle became a GrowNYC Compost Outreach Coordinator for the...

Frederick Phillips is Barbados-born, which is a place where life is, largely lived out-of-doors. There were plants and trees in his front yard, back yard and on both sides of his home, and Frederick and his siblings climbed and reaped fruits from most of them. After emigrating to New York City, his familiarity with trees and plants and affinity for the great outdoors led him to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. There,...

Milo, son, and Ayun, mom, happened to wander by the Compost Outpost one summer day in 2013, and by the following season they were regular volunteers at Earth Matter’s Friday work days. They brought with them smiles to light up a cloudy midnight sky! Milo immediately hit it off with our crew of animals, apprentices and regular volunteers, including Shafina, Emmanuel, Toni and family, among many others. Not only is...

The first time Emmie Campbell, a high school sophomore, showed up at Earth Matter’s Center was on a Friday volunteer day, near the end of summer 2013, introduced to us by her mom, Lori Nelson. Lori has an intimacy with GI as a core member of one of our Island Partners – 4Heads – which hosts the annual Governors Island Art Fair. Lori works as an artist-in-residency and exhibitor who primarily uses recycled materials...

Leslie Nowinski and Alison Simko are friends who live in Battery Park City. Three years ago they came to Earth Matter to assist in our animal care, and are now the regular chicken caregivers every Thursday. During the growing season they also maintain their Soil Start Farm community garden bed, adjacent to Earth Matter’s Compost Learning Center. These friends relish a vigorous jaunt in the fresh air, riding their...

The Schror family—William, Sanae, and their son, Haruki—have been helping out at Earth Matter’s Compost Learning Center for the past three years. In the summer, they delight in spending time with the goats and taking them for walks around the Center. Haruki, a sprightly first-grader, is particularly fond of the goats and has a ball taking care of them. Why? he was asked. “Because they are so cute!” he gleefully...

Last month Earth Matter was awarded 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. We owe a very special thanks to Rot Star Ilyse Kazar, one of the driving forces behind this feat. As the Earth Matter Board of Directors' Secretary, Ilyse encouraged our organization to expand the NYS not-for-profit  and CHAR500 status we obtained in 2009, to become a federally recognized not-for-profit organization. Ilyse joined us in meeting...

One August day in 2013, Gilmore family stumbled upon the Compost Leaning Center Outpost. They had planned to just stop by and meet the animals. They were instantly hooked by every aspect of Earth Matter and have volunteered as animal caretakers ever since. Laurie--an actor, Broadway theatre producer, and real estate agent, George--a musician, and their daughter Polly--a student, stayed for a couple of hours that...

Current writings by Sadie: "I am lucky to volunteer at Governors's Island! It's public but not in winter. We go in winter." (The necessity of our animals' feeding and water year round permits Sadie and her family to access our Compost Learning Center, and Trust for Governors Island makes this possible). "We have a hole flock of chickens to take care of every Sunday. It's fun. My faverits are Quzck, Gpoldy, Blacky...

Who Cares? Pablo Ortega Garcia- that’s who! (left) Source Separation at Just Food Conference 13. (from left) Yeuran Chang, Pablo Garcia, Marisa DeDominicis and Carol Hooper. Lots of people say they are concerned about the environment, but it takes a special kind of person to actually do something about it. Pablo Ortega Garcia is a man who truly cares…about the environment, about learning, and about sharing. As a...

A Love Affair with Microbes Passion comes in many forms; love for your family, your partner....the works of Beethoven or Bieber. Shig Matsukawa is passionate about fermentation, fermentation of people's food scraps. (photo left) Shig Matsukawa (center) instructs Earth Matter apprentices in the Bokashi method. Shig Matsukawa of Recyclefoodwaste.org, has been working with EM (Effective Microorganisms) for 20 years....

“Toni, what motivates you and your family, including 5 children/young adults, to trek from Brooklyn to Manhattan, then to Governors Island on any given Friday to catch the 10 am ferry to work with Earth Matter?” Toni's response: “Well, my children want to come out.  We just love being here on Governors Island, jumping around, being around nature and learning about all different kinds of natural things.” (left)...

Walter Wong works in an office; the Social Security office at Federal Plaza in Manhattan to be precise. Walter performs onsite audits for the Social Security Administration. Working with numbers pays the rent, but being a friend to Earth Matter allows him to do things he does not normally do; it also allows to him to step outside the box. He came across the Earth Matter Compost Outpost on Governors Island one...

Amin is a partner in “Fauzia’s Heavenly Delights”, a beloved food vendor for the past four years on Governors Island (GI). He is also Fauzia’s husband. They have three children who all help out with the business. Amin hails from Baltimore, and he first experienced “green” coconuts in his travels to Jamaica and West Africa.  “You pick them off the tree and the flesh is a jelly;  like egg whites!”. Amin, a...

Governors Island maintenance is performed by Wildcat Service Organization.The Wildcats are in charge of making sure that Governor Island (GI) is clean, as well as facilitating some of the landscape maintenance. The crew works closely with Earth Matter to capture and divert materials from the Island’s waste stream. This month we highlight our three year collaboration with Victor Havrisko, one of crew’s supervisors....

  Once upon a time an enchanted family volunteered at the Compost Outpost on Governors Island; seventh grader Joseph “the Wonder Boy” Largo, his third grade sister “Bella” Stella Largo, and their ever merry mother Shafina Rahim. Whenever they came to the Center, tasks magically disappeared. Joseph, The Wonder Boy, with his amazing woodsman skills, scouted and lopped succulent branches from scrub and weed trees....

Earth Matter processes approximately 18,500 lbs. of food scraps each month. Those scraps don’t magically compost themselves, it takes dedicated work to encourage active decomposition. Theodore Bolton and Henry Nye are just the guys to do it. Theodore registered as a volunteer and came to Earth Matter one May day to weed our Newa Farm and turn 2 cubic yards of food scraps with our Friday volunteer crew.  Walking...

"I feel so proud of my work in making this India bed (plants from India) emerge from a bed of weeds". Athira Sivan On the first day of our new internship at Earth Matter, we did not know what to expect. We were told by our internship coordinators to dress professionally and so we did just that. Decked out in fancy dress pants and open toed heels we made our way off the boat to have Marisa tell us “Wow you guys are,...

Earth Matter depends on volunteers for accomplishing many of our day to day chores and is lucky to have multi talented members who lend a hand in sharing their skills and expertise. Alexis Negron, who has been apprenticing and volunteering since February 2013, does more than her fair share. In addition to collecting compost data, helping to develop the worm nursery and worm bank, learning how to compost and helping...

NY HARBOR SCHOOL Resource Recovery Internship Program (R-RIP) INTERNS What does the average high school student do after a long hard day of study and concentration?  Well, the above average kids trek out to the south end of Governors Island to cure oyster shells, build planting beds, collect eggs, feed and water chickens and a variety of other tasks at the Earth Matter Compost Learning Center. N.Y. Urban Assembly...

Earth Matter volunteers cover a wide range - retired musicians, members of the composting community, ex-executives from the perfume industry, computer genius's, and even children. Here are 2 testimonials from Aixa and Ivan Lacroix, ages 10 and 12, who came to the Island last Memorial Day. They fell in love with the animals and came back every weekend all summer long. The following are essays sent to us by Aixa and...