The Learning Is In the Doing (Feat. LA Compost)

So today we are recording from the sixth national cultivating community composting forum, which this year is happening in New York City. Uh, we’re joined now by Michael Martinez, who is the founder of La Compost, obviously in La. Oh, we’re grateful for him to join us. So say, say hello.

So we kind of create a community hubs in schools and churches, museums, community gardens, art centers, housing projects, anywhere where the community of gathers and there’s food, um, present. We are able to build both the social and physical infrastructure, physical infrastructure, meaning the compost bins that can process food scraps and the physical infrastructure, meaning the educational platform for people to participate in the composting process and learn through doing a, we’re firm believers that education is only as strong as the opportunity and access that you give someone to put what was learned in the practice. Um, so these hubs kind of are the learning through doing models in the city that maybe you can tell our listeners a little bit more about your community. Like what, what would you share with people about La and what the community is that you serve there? Yeah, I think La is really interesting in that what makes the city and the county beautiful is the collective, the collection of zip codes and the collection of small pockets of communities similar to like here in New York.

But I think what’s special about each communities is the diversity in people who are present, the diversity and the landscapes in nature, the diversity in green spaces, but really finding that common denominator across all 88 sections of Los Angeles County, 88. Yeah. It’s the most populous county in the country, 10.2 million people. So, um, I think from a community standpoint, we’re really focused on building this human network and showing, um, the communities that we engage with, that they’re already doing valuable work, whether it’s at a school or community garden, that the process of composting is just added value and highlights the already goodness that they’re doing. Um, so our communities can range from, uh, university students to, uh, kids that are kids in the middle of the middle school campus to a collection of retired, um, individuals along the La River at a community garden. So I think we’re really fortunate to be able to engage with so many different populations, um, because we’re working with this common denominator of food and the story of food.

So for us that are like compost, our mission is to connect the people of Los Angeles to their soil and each other. And we do that through focusing as much on the composting process as we do on the human experience and user experience and the community process. So, uh, we definitely speak on this individual actions over time and consistently across the county. I’m going to have a huge impact on. And people do ultimately feel like they’re a part of something much bigger than themselves. If their account, they, if they’re composting on the west side, near beach towns to south Los Angeles to downtown, they do feel like they’re part of this network that’s doing some really incredible stuff. So eloquent as usual. Thank you for sharing that. And I think it’s a beautiful way of thinking about community is that there’s always something to learn. Something that they learned no matter what community you’re working in.

And even if that community doesn’t have like the conventional marks of success and more, um, you know, college degrees or, uh, that sort of thing. So, and really like learning from compost itself in that it sustains, it grows, it regenerates, and it’s naturally part of something that is life giving. And that builds resiliency. So for us, it doesn’t make sense for us to continue to just grow community hubs without the communities eventually being able to take ownership over those hopes. Um, we have a growth plan that as we plan on growing and establishing a new hub, we have to release a hub back into the control of the community. So it’s more of this co-op discipleship plan where we assess the health of the space, how many leads are there, how many, um, knowledgeable like that staff, but like community participants. So it’s, it’s, there’s, you know, and I think it’s really important, um, for this model because as much as la compost grows, we’re not going to be able to manage all of Los Angeles.

It’s going to take collective effort of everyone. So, um, what would I, what I find valuable is every single one of our hubs is in partnership with that community organization. So there’s that level of trust and transparency and buy in from the community. So we get to kind of build on that and we’re really seeing, um, a lot of communities take ownership a lot quicker than that two year window. And we find that fun, a lot of value in that. But ultimately community composting in my opinion, is for communities to be taking on this act. And for the most part doing it on their own with guidance, support and facilitation.

So, um, I dunno, I always feel like coming to this conference, I learned a lot, not only just from the presentations but from the people in the room cause there’s always new faces. Um, so it’s always encouraging to, to see where people are on their journey, provide support when, when, when I can, but also learn from them as well.

Are there any top of mind goals that you have for la compost for the coming year?

And we really found that these sites and spaces are really incredible. Not just in the sense that they’re able to support the space in which we’re composting with beautiful compost, but it’s a great large classroom for people to really make those connections as the story of food and how their individual actions relate to that story and how it makes it positive or negative impact. So this year we’re trying to establish a pretty significant site at a state park in downtown Los Angeles. It’s not gonna process a ton of material across us, maybe two times a week, but it’s right next to one of the main metro chains. So every five minutes there’s going to be quite a few Angelenos seen what’s going on and spring. That curiosity of wanting to know what we’re doing, whether it’s turning windows or teaching a workshop, and when people can come to this space, they can feel excited and wanting to participate in this type of work and we can point to the map of Los Angeles and show them where there’s opportunities for them to engage at both the individual level as well as the community level.

So what am I big goals for this year is to not only establish a decent regional site specifically in that location, but improve on our both best management practices at the community level as well as establish that strong co-op model that’s going to allow us to continue to grow well and release community hubs, um, out and give, give the power of compassing back to the community. Because at the moment we have three, three regional hubs, two at urban farms and wanted to park. But this one at the state part would be our largest and kind of the heartbeat of our operations with health centrally located is in relation to Las geography. It’s beautiful. I mean, it sounds like you are embodying like all scales of community composting. Yeah. ILSR has a really beautiful hierarchy of food and I think it’s really important for you to define where you play and where you want to play well and not try to tackle everything.

We’re not food recovery, we’re not commercial composters, but we feel like we can do a really good job on three, um, three rings of that scale.

Even some of these larger organizations, they all started somewhere. And I think one word of advice I’d give to a composter is have grace for yourself as well. Don’t be upset that you don’t have full time staff or that you’re not retaining volunteers or that you don’t have more sites like others do. What works for you. The learning is in the doing and anything we’re having should take time and there’s going to be different variations of this model along the way. You know, we started off as composting on bikes because that was the model that was out there and we thought it made sense but it didn’t. But it’s okay. We, and I think it’s really important for you to establish that mission, vision and values. So those are the cornerstone foundational pieces of your organization that aren’t wavering and changing. But the how and the deliverables perhaps could be different.

But the last thing you want to do is keep reinventing yourself year after year. Um, I think it’s really strong. It’s, I think it’s really important for you to take the time to reflect on why you’re engaging with this work and the how it’s going to be changed. Just like our college major was perhaps three times. So patience and grace for yourself is really important.