Earth Day Groceries Project

A SIMPLE SERVICE PROJECT AIMED AT ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS IN YOUR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY.

Earth Day Groceries is a FREE activity that hundreds of schools, scout groups, youth recreations centers, and after school programs around the world will be involved in on Earth Day. The basic idea is this: Montgomery County Solid Waste District obtains large paper grocery bags from their corporate partner, Kroger. The bags are delivered to participating schools. Students decorate the bags with colorful environmental messages. The bags are returned to Kroger, and Kroger distributes the decorated bags to shoppers the week of Earth Day.

One representative from your school should coordinate the effort for the school or classrooms that will be involved in decorating the bags. Bags will be distributed on a first come basis. There are 10,000 bags available for Montgomery County schools. Once the bags are distributed, students decide what kind of environmental message and artwork they would like to have on a shopper’s grocery bag for Earth Day, be sure to include the words “Earth Day 200_” and their school name. Finally, the decorated bags need to be redelivered to local Kroger stores. Schools can deliver bags to any Kroger near the school.

Sample logos and slogans are available upon request. The MCSWD also has educational materials that can be checked out to enhance any educational efforts that may accompany the awareness component of this project.

The website coordinating this project is www.earthdaybags.org. The Earth Day Groceries Project is one of the oldest and largest educational activities on the internet. The last step of the school’s participation is for the school to send a report to the program specialist (Lorelei Hagans) with the number of students participating in the program. MCSWD will compile the reports and send them to www.earthdaybags.org.

MCSWD will also feature results and photos on its web-site at www.mcswd.org.