How We Started: The Seed of Our Organization
The Waste for Food project was the seed of our organization. It began in early 2014, when Casa Pampa's founders, looking to give their best to the community of Santa Teresa, decided to start composting the neighbours’ organic waste.
The waste collection in our district was suspended temporarily due to a lack of municipal funds. The idea was simple: show community members the valuable resource that could be created with their waste and help solve a critical problem.
Initially, organic waste from local grocery stores and restaurants was collected daily and managed using the ancient technology of composting. Through this process, the organic waste was transformed into rich organic fertilizer within 3-6 months.
Identifying the necessity of a more efficient management system for this organic material, we officially created the Waste for Food project to promote it within the community.
As interest grew, the project developed further, leading to the creation of the Casa Pampa volunteer program. With the help of volunteers and the Proyecto Cam volunteer group, we started a community garden within the Liceo Rural of Santa Teresa installations. We hosted many workshops and classes with students and local business owners to promote composting and regenerative agriculture.
After this successful experience and understanding the potential impact, we connected with organizations in the district of Cóbano who saw the positive outcome of our work, giving us their full formal support.
Today, the Waste for Food Project has shown community members, businesses, and organizations a real alternative to organic waste management and is actively supporting the development of the municipal Compost education campaign..
It is an integral educational project that aims to bring awareness to the whole consumption cycle. It starts from our decision of where we buy our food, how to minimize waste while we cook, and recycling organic waste through composting technology. Finally, to close the cycle in a full loop, we teach regenerative agriculture to show community members the power they have to change and create a new way of interacting with Mother Earth.
By teaching community members at the residential and commercial levels about composting, we hope to inspire change in their habits, creating less waste and a healthier community. The Casa Pampa team is dedicated to showing that our personal organic waste, whether from home or businesses, is our own responsibility.
Our goal is to create a space for education and exchange of experiences, encouraging participants to take an active role in managing their waste.
For this, we created The Compost Club as a community environmental education initiative that emerges within the framework of the Waste for Food Project.
We organize free workshops and hands-on courses to help businesses and neighbors learn how to separate, collect, and dispose of their organic waste at the point of generation.
There is no current system in place by the local government to collect and utilize organic waste to its full potential. We count on community members to initiate change.
By being responsible consumers, our individual actions contribute to the growth of a virtuous circle of positive impact on nature.
The initiative is supported by the Integrated Solid Waste Management Commission (MIRS) and the Municipal Council of the Cóbano district.
