September Young Professional of the Month: Clara Bement

We are thrilled to highlight Clara Bement as September’s YP of the Month! Clara is the Urban Garden Lead at The Foodbank, Inc., in Dayton, Ohio.

Clara has been working at The Foodbank, Inc. in Dayton, Ohio, for 4 years. The Food Bank operates an EPA licensed Class II food waste composting facility that processes material from the community as well as spoilage from the warehouse. With food banks nationwide truly being integral in preventing food waste from grocery stores, composting goes hand in hand with their operations, as there's inevitably lots of food waste in the supply chain before it even gets to the consumer. The Foodbank, Inc. rescued over 5.5 million pounds of food last year just from retailers. Clara is incredibly inspired by her garden teammates, James Hoffer and Courtney Curtner. The two of them, as well as several dedicated volunteers, are responsible for diverting over 100,000 pounds of food scraps from the landfill just last year and converting them into an incredibly rich soil that grows the next season's fresh produce for the community in the urban garden. 
 
Clara loves getting to see the community members that come and drop off their buckets to the garden and the amount of excitement and amazement that folks have about the impact of this program in the community. Recently, Clarra and her team received a grant to provide vermicomposting kits to Dayton schools and are working with fellow YP Lauren Click (Let’s Go Compost) to provide the kits and curriculum for all ages. The program will be launched at the beginning of October. Clara and her team are excited to get to work with students in the area and engage them in the conversation about reducing food waste and composting!
 
Congratulations to Clara for her outstanding contributions to the composting industry!