THE GAZETTE
Page A-4
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 s
Takoma Park to expand compost program After a successful trial, the city looks to divert more food waste
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BY
SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER
Takoma Park is turning its trash into soil. And soon more residents will be able to take part in the food waste pick-up program. Last February the city initiated a pilot compost pick-up program for 365 homes, with additional dropoff points for food waste at farmers markets for residents not in the program. Food waste and paper products - from eggshells to pizza boxes - are picked up from participants’ homes and taken to an industrialscale compost facility in Baltimore where waste decomposes into nutrient-rich soil. The pilot program has been so successful that many residents began calling the city asking if they too could have their compost collected. On Monday, the Takoma Park Council passed passed an ordinance approving the expansion. Currently, city staff operates
pick-ups for the 300 homes in Wards 2 and 3, and a contractor collects food waste from the 65 homes in Ward 1. Pick-up is opt-in and participants received a 5-gallon bucket to set out on the curb alongside trash and recycling. The city also initially provided a six-month supply of compostable bags to line the bucket. Twenty-five to 35 percent of residents who received information about the program chose to participate in the pilot. The city has covered the $33,000 cost of the program. The plan will expand collection to an estimated additional 500 homes at a cost of $45,065, or about $2.65 each week, per home, for 34 weeks, also covered by the city. With this addition, the program will be offered to a total of 2,810 of the 3,300 homes that receive city trash collection services. Special Projects Coordinator Nima Upadhyay, who oversees the program in the Department of Public Works said that continuing the services currently in place will be much cheaper next year, now that the program has been set up and the city already invested in the buckets for participants. She esti-
mates that next year’s collection will cost about $10,500 for the 300 homes the city currently collects from, factoring in only fuel and the tipping fee - the $55 per week cost the city pays Chesapeake Compost Works in Baltimore at drop-off - but not including staff costs or replacement of lost buckets, which the city provides. Staff costs were also not included in the initial cost. In a survey of participants, only 31 percent said that they would pay for pick-up. Ninety percent said that they plan to continue participating with free service. The Public Works Department estimated that food waste will account for 3 percent of the city’s waste stream with the expansion, increasing the city’s trash diversion rate to 57 percent. Currently 54 percent is diverted as recycling and yard waste. Chesapeake Compost Works in Baltimore is the closest compost facility, according to the Department of Public Works. Here, waste is turned into compost soil, which the company sells. Takoma Park is giving away up to 25 gallons of completed compost to each participant who wants it, available for pickup at the public works office until No-
vember 15. However this soil is not free to the city, which bought it this year for participants to try at a cost of $20 per home. Participant Judith Colwell said, “it’s great, hardly anything goes into my regular trash can anymore.” Between recycling and compost, some weeks she has no trash to put out, she said. She also discovered that storing the compost in her freezer eliminates the sometimes unpleasant smell that used to come from the bucket. Another participant, Graham Copp said he hopes the program can serve as a model for other cities. His family used to keep a compost pile outside, mostly with yard clippings, for fear that putting food out would attract rats. “I’m glad we’re reducing the amount of waste we’re putting into the landfill,” he said. “It’s good for the environment.” Copp said he’s looking forward to using the completed compost in his garden. “It’s going to be really food for our soil,” he said, “It’s a good feeling to know that the food we discarded will go into helping our soil and helping us grow food in our garden next year.”
STILL COOKING: Mabel Sawhill stays in the kitchen, remains trendy at 100 n
Centenarian is a high-heeled caterer in high demand BY
ALINE BARROS STAFF WRITER
Mabel Sawhill loves trendy sunglasses and stiletto heels. She’s got a personal shopper who keeps her up to date on the latest fashion trend. And she likes to cook. In high heels. A lot. In fact, Sawhill calls cooking her “ministry” and only brings in help when she caters events with more than 150 people. In fact, she catered her own birthday party for 677 of her guests this past weekend. And the party celebrated a milestone. Sawhill turns 100 years old on Oct. 30. Dressed in an orange and yellow floral dress with orange high heels, Sawhill directed volunteers in the kitchen during her own birthday brunch. Sawhill, a Silver Spring resident, had two birthday parties — one at the National Presbyterian Church on Saturday, and a brunch celebration at the Woman’s Club of Bethesda on Sunday. At the brunch, she told volunteers what time to serve the first and second courses, which included meat pasta dishes, cornbread, spinach salads and pastries. She kept a watchful eye at the buffet to make sure there always was enough food for her guests. Her birthday cake was made to look like a Chanel pink purse. A second cake was decorated with sugar zebra prints, with a mini pair of stilettos on top, makeup and nail polish capturing Sawhill’s personality. Sawhill owns a private catering business she operates out of her own home. She drives to events and does her own grocery shopping. Sometimes, she works at two events per day, comes home and cooks from midnight to 4 a.m. She then sleeps three to four hours and is up again to cater another party. So far in 2013, Sawhill has catered more than 100 events — 20 in May alone. She gets business by word of mouth. She doesn’t own a cellphone. On Friday, she prepared 3,000 sandwiches for 677 guests who came from all over the country to celebrate her birthday at the National Presbyterian Church. “I have a lot of friends,” Sawhill said while laughing. “Did you eat?” She kept asking relatives and close friends, but wouldn’t stop to enjoy her own birthday brunch. Sawhill was happy knowing she served “tasty” and “delicious” food to the people who came to share this special day with her. Sawhill, a long-time Silver Spring resident, was born on Oct. 30, 1913, and lived on a farm in Iowa. She got whooping cough when she was just a month old. The bacteria, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, is a highly contagious respiratory disease that affects infants. It can be fatal in babies less than 1 year old. The family’s doctor said, “I don’t believe I can save her.” But Sawhill said the “great physician” had
InBrief
New language addition to Silver Spring Library Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) announced Thursday that Amharic is now part of the language collection at the Silver Spring Library. More than 58,000 Africans live in Montgomery and the largest group among them is Ethiopians, according to a county news release. Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia and is the second-most spoken Semitic language in the world, according to the release. The new collection includes young readers’ stories and language learning materials, adult fiction and nonfiction, and some compact disks. The county’s public libraries already house collections in Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, French and Russian. A Farsi language collection will be added to the Gaithersburg and Praisner library branches in early winter, according to the release.
Scouts launch food drive this week It’s time for Scouting for Food. Starting Saturday, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts across the county will deliver empty plastic bags in their neighborhoods, along with a flier explaining the Scouting for Food campaign. A week later, on Nov. 9, the Scouts will collect filled bags and deliver them to one of several collection points, where they will be loaded into trucks for Manna Food Center in Gaithersburg, the main food bank in Montgomery County. Residents participating in the collection are asked to place filled bags outside their doors the morning of Nov. 9.
Coat drive for homeless is underway The Montgomery County Department of Recreation and Interfaith Works are collecting gently worn children and adult coats of all sizes through Friday to support the county’s and Gaithersburg’s Homeless Resource Day. The goal is to collect more than 500 winter coats, especially in adult sizes XL to 3XL. Here are the drop-off locations in Silver Spring: • Long Branch Community Recreation Center and Senior Center, 8700 Piney Branch Road. • Martin Luther King Jr. Swim Center, 1201 Jackson Road. • Mid-County Community Recreation Center, 2004 Queensguard Road. • Schweinhaut Senior Center, 1000 Forest Glen Road. Coats may be dropped off in Wheaton at the Wheaton Community Recreation Center, 11711 Georgia Ave. For information, call Judy Stiles at 240-7776875.
POLICE BLOTTER
Complete report at www.gazette.net PHOTOS BY DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Mabel Sawhill (left), who turns 100 on Oct. 30, joins volunteers who were preparing food for her birthday party in the kitchen of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. other plans for her. A high school teacher in Iowa, Sawhill moved to Silver Spring when she was 28 after World War II. “Everybody was doing their bit, and I thought I should do something for my country,” Sawhill said. Sawhill wan administrative assistant at the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and began catering weddings and churches dinners in her spare time before retiring in 1983. It quickly grew into the business she has today. But she doesn’t call it a catering business. “I
like to call it as my ministry,” she added. During the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, she packed her car with food she cooked in the morning and drove to Washington, D.C., even though others were evacuating the city. She went to the Capital Yacht Club and offered to serve dinner to police officers and firefighters. They came across the Potomac River on boats in two shifts of 25 people. Sawhill is also a movie star. Independent filmmaker and director Pia Clement of California filmed Sawhill for a 28-minute documentary, in which producers followed her on events, at her shopping sprees and around her Silver Spring apartment last year. The movie is expected to be entered in independent film festivals all over the U.S. It made its debut during her birthday party at the National Presbyterian Church. “In a lot of ways I looked at her as a second mom,” Sean Moore, her grandnephew, said through an interpreter. Moore was born deaf. “Looking back in college, I struggled academically, and I took a break and for me, that is not easy to tell Mabel. And she said, ‘You know, that’s OK. Take the time you need. Take your break and
The following is a summary of incidents in the Silver Spring/Takoma Park area to which Montgomery County and/or Takoma Park police responded recently. The words “arrested” and “charged” do not imply guilt. This information was provided by the county and Takoma Park police media services office.
3RD DISTRICT Aggravated assault • On Oct. 16 at 12:05 a.m. in the 2300 block of Evans Drive, Silver Spring. No further information provided. Armed robbery • On Oct. 12 at 12:29 a.m. in the 8800 block of Piney Branch Road, Silver Spring. The subject threatened the victim with a weapon and took property. • On Oct. 12 at 11:05 p.m. in the 8000 block of Eastern Avenue, Silver Spring. The subject threatened the victim with a weapon and took property.
Mabel Sawhill, who will turn 100 on Oct. 30, wore these shoes in the kitchen of the National Presbyterian Church while directing volunteers who were preparing food for her birthday party. when you are ready, get back to it, do it better than ever,’” Moore said. Other relatives said she has supported and helped the family in many ways. Sawhill would go to her nephew’s sports events; she put her nieces through private school and instilled Christian values in them. “She never judges you. If you do something wrong, she doesn’t scold you for it,” said Megan Moore, Mabel’s grandniece. “But she tries to make sure that you learn in a good manner, in a good way.” Sawhill doesn’t know the secret to a long life. “I really don’t eat well. I don’t sleep right, but God very graciously has given me a beautiful life. Maybe not having a husband,” she said. abarros@gazette.net
Strong-arm robbery • On Oct. 10 at 11:13 p.m. in the 600 block of Beacon Road, Silver Spring. The subjects assaulted the victim and unsuccessfully attempted to take property. • On Oct. 14 at 7:15 p.m. at Montgomery College, 7995 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. The subjects assaulted the victim and took property. Commercial burglary • Between 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and 8 a.m. Oct. 15 at The Smart Data Solutions, 9700 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. Forced entry, took property. • Between 5 p.m. Oct. 12 and 4 p.m. Oct. 13 at Maryland Oral Surgery, 1300 Spring St., Silver Spring. Attempted forced entry, took nothing. Residential burglary • 3500 block of Aston Manor Court, Silver Spring, at 4:25 a.m. Oct. 8. No forced entry, took property. • 14600 block of Blackburn Road, Silver Spring, between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Oct. 9. Forced entry, took property. • 14100 block of Angelton Terrace, Silver Spring, between 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 p.m. Oct. 10. Forced entry, took property. • 14100 block of Castle Boulevard, Silver Spring, between 11 p.m. Oct. 10 and 6 a.m. Oct. 11. No forced entry, took property.