This blog features Renee & Andy Coughlin from New Leaf Food Truck and Dan Lizmore from Western Fair District’s Wormery. These Green Economy London members have partnered together to divert waste from the landfill!

At New Leaf Planet Based Food, our mission is to contribute to a food industry that supports the mindful consumption of healthy plants. We aim to make delicious and nutritious food that keeps us and our planet healthy. We opened our Food Truck in 2020 and shortly after became a member of Green Economy London. After joining as a new member, Dan Lizmore from The Wormery reached out to us to initiate some collaborations around food waste. In 2020, The Wormery kept 30 tonnes of green waste out of the landfills, and with the help of one million worms they were able to convert it to a natural rich fertilizer.

When we started the food truck, our goal was to create plant based meals that were made from fresh, mostly local and organic ingredients. We knew that we wanted this business to be responsible for its waste and to limit the negative impact we have on the environment. As a food truck it can sometimes be hard to predict how much food we will need. There are times that we prepare lots of food, then events get rained out or cancelled unexpectedly. When that happens, we are left with food we can’t sell, and limits on what we are able to donate. 

When we first met Dan, we had been diverting all of our food waste from the truck and our prep kitchen to our own backyard compost bin. As you can imagine it was quickly becoming too much for us to divert on our own. When we learned about the work Dan and the worms were doing we knew it was a no brainer to partner with him. Through this partnership we are able to give away what we don’t use, while fulfilling some of our goals to build a sustainable and responsible business. We are fully plant based, so there are no limits to the food waste we can give to The Wormery. Peels, cores, bruised bits, seeds…the worms love it all. 

Dan is always offering worm castings (that natural rich fertilizer we talked about earlier) back to us to use in our gardens at home, and potted plants on our deck. You can also use the castings to make a compost tea that helps to put more nutrients back into the plants at home. As a business that is dedicated to operating on a healthy planet, we are happy to make these necessary shifts in order to create more sustainable and reciprocal systems, especially within the food industry. 

We are excited to be working in a community where many different people share this sense of responsibility. Things are getting easier and easier the more we are able to collaborate with those other businesses that have the infrastructure we don’t have. We get to focus on sourcing healthy, sustainably grown plants that go into making delicious meals, while trusting Dan and the worms to divert our waste so it can find its way back to those plants and keep the cycle going.  

– by Renee Coughlin, New Leaf Planet Based Food

The Wormery is always looking for more green waste! They compost kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves, sawdust, shredded paper, coffee grounds, egg shells, and assorted other items. 

If you would like to divert waste from you home or business please reach out to Dan at dlizmore@westernfairdistrict.com 

Watch this short video to learn more about the work going on at The Wormery! 

Worm Casting Fertilizer is also available for purchase through the Grove website at www.thegroveWFD.com