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Nursing Home Residents' Compost with a twist
Newswise, August 2010 — Residents at
Courtland Gardens Nursing & Rehabilitation
Center in Randallstown, MD, are using one of
their favorite hobbies to improve the
environment.
The residents are taking part in programs
where they plant flowers using compost from
their own cafeteria and others.
Josh Koizol a greening facilitator for
Reduction and Motion, an environmental
company that works with Cortland Gardens,
explains that the compost contains “food
scraps left after cooking and left on
cafeteria trays.”
He says that containers with leftover food
are picked up three times a week and
composted.
Hannah Williams, a therapeutic recreation
specialist, CTRS, at Courtland Gardens says
“our residents definitely enjoy the
gardening! Seeing the plants bloom, getting
their hands dirty, and going outside is good
for them.”
Gardening
is a way for patients to use their fine
motor skills, socialize, and move around.
“We use gardening as a recreation tool to
promote better quality of life.” Williams
continues. Residents plant with compost
around twice a month and invite family
members to join.
Courtland Gardens is one of the few
long-term care centers in Baltimore area
that has residents using composted
materials.
Composting is the decomposition of once
living materials to make a substance that is
great for adding to garden soils; it is a
critical step in reducing the volume of
garbage unnecessarily sent to landfills for
dumping.
Courtland Gardens are part of LifeBridge
Health, which includes Sinai Hospital,
Northwest Hospital, and Levindale Hebrew
Geriatric Center and Hospital and is one of
the largest and most comprehensive providers
of health services in the northwest
Baltimore region.
