Cornwall Community Food and Composting :: wasteaction.org.uk

Cornwall Community Food and Composting Project(CCFC)

Compost Mentor Scheme

CCFC is a partnership between Cornwall Waste Action (CWA), Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change (CN4C) and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG). The project will raise the profile and importance of local food production and composting within the community network areas surrounding Falmouth, Penzance, Truro, St Austell, Bodmin and Liskeard. The project if funded by the Big Lottery Fund as part of its Local Food programme.

CWA offers free training and support to local people to become Compost Mentors: volunteers who encourage and help members of their community to compost. All volunteers are invited to attend a free, 1/2 day workshop and are given a free compost bin and caddy. Once they have attended the workshop they begin to mentor their friends, family, colleagues or neighbours. The first two households mentored by each volunteer also receive free compost bins and caddies.

Marie Libert, CWA’s Compost Development Worker, says “this is an attractive and rewarding project as it proposes immediate, achievable aims and offers people the opportunity to make a real difference. Composting reduces home waste so drastically that you notice it instantly! It also encourages people to look after their soil and grow their own food, which is both satisfying and healthy.”

In 2009 the scheme was run in Penzance and Falmouth, and 60 Compost Mentors were trained and given compost bins and caddies. They have been spreading the word about composting for the last few months, and have already convinced many people to start composting at home.

If you would like to become a Volunteer Compost Mentor please contact CWA on 01209 210883 or
email

All volunteers will receive Free Training and support plus a Free Compost Bin!

Mentors will promote home composting in their own communities by providing advice to neighbours, friends and family and will also attend local community events. They will act as a source of advice and support to new and existing composters.

If you would like to learn more about what it means to be a compost mentor before you sign up, please read our article Meet the Mentors where two volunteers share their mentoring experience.

For more background information on the Project click here

You can also download the Compost Mentors August Newsletter

PDF format

The project is based on an exchange -

Mentors receive:
a compost bin, a kitchen compost caddy and a training workshop. At the workshop they will receive a compost mentor pack which contains various resources such as Nicky Scott's book "Composting An Easy Household Guide", workshop handouts and a resource list.
The compost workshop handbook is available to download. Please Click here

Ongoing support is provided by CWA for 4 months following the workshop to help the mentor to pass on their skills and enable others to start and successfully make compost.

In return the mentors:
Choose at least two people/households from their existing social circle (family, friends, neighbours, colleagues)to mentor.

Provide compost training to their beneficiaries using compost leaflets, book and handout as well as ongoing support through phone calls and home visits.

The Project Target areas are:
West Cornwall (July 2009 to March 2010)
Mid Cornwall (June 2010 to December 2010)
East Cornwall (March 2011 to December 2011) And 30 mentors will be recruited in each area.