WoTu Sustainability Cooperative

At A Glance

Location: 

Mirror Lake, New Hampshire

Primary Issue Area:

  • Food
  • Climate Change & Energy
  • Environmental Health

Active since:

2019

Core volunteers:

4

  • Initial WoTu Summit Meeting (February 2020)
  • Pilot composting program set up at YMCA North Woods/Pleasant Valley Camps
  • Summer 2020 Pilot Compost Site at Camp Sentinel
  • Campers in a Garden Education Program at North Woods Camp
  • Campers watering plants at the North Woods / Pleasant Valley Garden
  • Raised Garden Beds Built by Volunteers at North Woods / Pleasant Valley Camps

Our Purpose

The WoTu Sustainability Cooperative is a network of summer camps and local organizations in Wolfeboro/Tuftonboro, NH, working towards a sustainable future. Since our formation in 2019, WoTu has helped build multiple camp gardens and has established food scrap collection/compost systems at camps and other local organizations. We seek to help reduce carbon footprints and promote healthy, circular, local food systems. Our member camps are Camp Sentinel, Camp Merrowvista (American Youth Foundation), and North Woods / Pleasant Valley Camps (YMCA of Greater Boston). Additional supporting partners include High Meadows Farms, Spider Web Gardens, Wolfeboro Transfer Station, Lakes Region Planning Commission, local lumber yards, and community volunteers.The camps strive to create environmental sustainability programs that are excellent learning tools for campers and visitors alike. In the camp gardens, youth get hands-on experience growing food and using the scraps to make soil. Landfilled food waste is a major contributor to climate change because its decomposition produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Thus, our programs create great educational tools for the camps, as well as reducing their emissions. We want to teach youth and community volunteers about healthy, sustainable living strategies benefiting both the planet and the people around them. We care about sharing information, resources, and our passion for sustainability with our local communities.