The Great Green 2025 Community BBQ
A Tale of Trash, Triumph & Community Spirit
Or: How 500+ Mandela Families Learned to Sort Like Sustainability Ninjas
September 10, 2025
By Janine V. Johnston
Picture this: A devoted Mandela parent (that would be me) standing bewildered in front of three bins, holding a suspicious-looking brown cup, wondering if it belongs in compost, recycling, or the dreaded landfill bin. Sound familiar? Welcome to my crash course in "Advanced Waste Management" – Mandela style!
The Plot Thickens (Like Uncompostable Plastic)
After years of wondering if Mandela even HAD a recycling program (We do!), this year's PTA decided to go full-on environmental warrior for our Back-to-School Community BBQ. Thanks to inspiration from a fellow PTA member who runs the greenest school this side of the Rio Grande, we embarked on what I now call "The Great Composting Adventure of 2025."
Enter our heroes: Juliana Ciano and Trevor Ortiz, from Reunity Resources, and Lucy Stanus, SFPS's Sustainability Director extraordinaire. These folks didn't just help us; they held our hands through "Composting 101" like the patient teachers they are.
The Great Cup Conspiracy
Plot twist number one: Those lovely brown, FSC-certified cups I'd proudly selected? About as compostable as a plastic lawn chair. Apparently, looking green and BEING green are two very different things (Who knew?). Trevor gently broke the news that our cups were basically wearing a compostable costume while hiding their true petroleum-product identity. Back to the drawing board—or in this case, back to the Amazon!
Enter the Trash Talkers
Here's where our story gets truly Mandela-magical. Lucy warned us that throwing away trash is apparently rocket science in disguise. Most of us haven't developed what I now call "Bin Intuition" (bintuition?), that split-second ability to know exactly where your crumpled napkin belongs in the grand scheme of waste management (hint: the compost bin).
The solution? Trash Talkers! Picture our amazing seniors positioned like friendly bouncers at each bin station, gently guiding confused BBQ-goers:
"That aluminum pan? Recycling, please!"
"Leftover burger? Compost all the way!"
"That chip bag? Sorry, friend, that's landfill territory."
The Real Heroes Emerge
But wait: There's more! Even with our stellar Trash Talking team, contamination happened faster than you can say "biodegradable fork." That's when our true heroes emerged: parents and students willing to don compostable gloves and dive into the bins like archaeological waste warriors, rescuing misplaced cans from compost confusion and reuniting aluminum pans with their recycling family.
Watching our 7th-10th graders cheerfully wheel six bins around campus like they were moving furniture for the world's greenest block party? Pure joy. Seeing parents dig through questionable waste to save the planet, one misplaced chip bag at a time? Absolutely inspiring.
Weather Plot Twist
Mother Nature decided to test our green resolve with some dramatic weather, turning our expected 600 attendees into a more intimate—but no less enthusiastic—gathering. Did this dampen our spirits? Not a chance! Our community proved that when life gives you unexpected weather, you make the greenest lemonade possible—then compost the rinds!
The speed and grace with which everyone pivoted indoors, moving 50 tables and countless chairs while keeping our sustainability mission intact, was like watching a flash mob of environmental stewardship in action.
The Beautiful Bottom Line
This wasn't just about sorting trash correctly, though we absolutely nailed that part. This was about our Mandela community proving that when we work together—students, parents, teachers, administration, and local sustainability heroes—we can turn any challenge into an opportunity for learning, growth, and genuine fun.
To our fearless Trash Talkers, our bin-diving heroes, our weather-pivoting champions, and everyone who chose compostable over convenient: THANK YOU. You turned what could have been a logistical nightmare into a masterclass in community collaboration.
Here's to next year's BBQ: May our bins be ever properly sorted and our community spirit even greener than our compost!
P.S. I now look at every disposable cup with deep suspicion and newfound respect for the complexity of modern waste management. Who says PTA service can't be educational?
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Special thanks to Juliana Ciano and Trevor Ortiz at Reunity Resources, Lucy Stanus at SFPS Sustainability, Kaylee and Christina in the MIMS office, the SFPS Maintenance office, Ami Ehrlich and Donna Woodford-Gormley, parent organizers, and every single person who made our green BBQ dream a deliciously sustainable reality.
