Young Professional Members Highlight: Deirdre Appel from SODak Composting:

May 1st kicked off International Compost Awareness Week and was also the launch of South Dakota's first community composting nonprofit organization—SoDak Compost. SoDak Compost, is a nonprofit organization founded by Deirdre Appel in Sioux Falls, to strengthen the community's connection to the problem of food waste, the potential of food scraps, and the promise of compost. In partnership with a local urban garden, IronFox Farms, SoDak Compost will be running a pilot starting in early June that will collect household food scraps via a weekly drop-off system and turn them into compost.
 
Deride arrived in Sioux Falls in July 2021 from Brooklyn, New York. Since moving to South Dakota, she became a community gardener, works part-time at Cherry Rock Farms and is a member of the Sioux Falls Food Co-Op and Dakota Rural Action. Despite a growing interest in food systems and sustainability, she quickly learned her limitations. As an apartment resident, there is no option to recycle food scraps or compost. The absence led her to creating her own solution — SoDak Compost. Deirdre’s professional background is in public policy and nonprofit management. She received her Master of Global Policy Studies from the LBJ School at University of Texas at Austin in 2016 and currently works as a Communications Adviser for international development organizations. Deirdre competed in this year's Emerging Composter Competition at the U.S Composting Council Conference in Austin, Texas. To know more about SODak Compost please visit SoDak Compost or contact info@sodakcompost.org.