What do child care cribs have to do with sustainability goals?  About 40 tons worth!   Due to new safety standards for cribs, GSA Child Care Centers had over 1300 cribs that could no longer be used.  In support of GSA’s waste diversion goals, Regional Child Care Coordinators worked with Regional Solid Waste/Recycling Coordinators  to divert over 40 tons of cribs from landfills and incinerators.  Materials were either recycled or reused for creative use projects.

The Pacific Rim Region’s Success, by Nicolas Christensen

Daunting at first, when I learned about this project I saw a lot of possibilities to align with GSA agency wide environmental goals.  Being in San Francisco, I was lucky to have many tools and opportunities to reuse or re-purpose the 76 cribs in our 9 child care centers.  The Environmental Solid Waste and Recycling team in Central Office; Lena Kofas and Sandy Skolochenko, provided invaluable connections to recycling vendors region-wide. After some research, I found two Bay Area companies interested in acquiring some of our cribs.

The first was the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, a company built on the idea that unwanted items could be saved from the landfill and given back to the community to be reused or re-purposed, or even used for art projects and other alternatives. The director was very excited to receive 10 of our cribs to use as on-site examples of ways that items could be re-purposed into different objects than the manufacturer had originally intended.   The second company was the Adventure Playground in Berkeley, CA where supervised children are allowed to work with tools to build their ideal playground. The five cribs they accepted will be incorporated into the existing playground in whatever ways the children can imagine!

The child care director in Hawaii took this project one step further by deciding to keep the six cribs at her center. Here, they were dismantled on-site and re-purposed to build such items as easels, magazine racks and gross motor equipment.
A remaining 55 cribs were transported to a local recycling vendor. One year prior to the deadline, Region 9 replaced all cribs with high quality cribs which meet the new standards, and the old cribs have been re-purposed or recycled within their local communities.

 Leading the Industry
All child care centers across the nation (not only GSA centers) will also need to replace their cribs to meet the new standard.  Because GSA closely followed the regulation updates, we were positioned to refresh the cribs one year before the required date.  The child care division worked with crib manufacturers early and communicated our project goal to prevent the cribs going to landfills.  This brought new awareness to manufacturers and many responded with similar waste-diversion strategies and recycling opportunities for the obsolete crib materials.

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Celebrations and recognition are the order of business during the Week of the Young Child, this year celebrated April 23-27.  Every year the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) observes a week in April for child care providers, teachers, community members, state governments and the federal government to recognize the impacts high quality child care has on our children and families.

Some fun from the Pacific Northwest centers: 

 In Seattle, Growing Years Child Care Center prepared the “World’s Largest Fruit Salad” – This activity supported collaboration throughout the center, and connected the children to healthy nutrition and Earth Day.  Families of each age group were invited to bring in a specific type of fruit. The children prepared the fruit in small groups and each classroom enjoyed the fruit salad for afternoon snack.

Little Eagles Child Care had a concert in the courtyard, incorporating the music and movement with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move Campaign”. The band, Brian and his Good Buddies, performed two sessions. The center invited some of their neighbors: United Way, Starbucks, and Russell Investments to party with them.
At the Green Tree Child Care Center they hosted an art walk for families and friends in the Park Place Building. The event showcased children’s art work from all the classrooms and was attended by EPA associates from the building, GSA, families and board members. 

 
Joyful Noise Child Care Center, located in Portland OR hosted an art walk at the 911 federal building in Portland. Children’s art was displayed for purchase. Funds raised will support the child care program in purchasing a light table to enhance their discovery and science curriculum.  

Parents and Board members at Little Aviators Child Care Center, located in Renton WA, planned daily activities including visits from the K-9 unit with Customs and Border Patrol, Renton fire department, Renton police department, and Valley Medical center.  Parents and FAA volunteers came into the center all week to read to the children.

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Recently the Y Early Childhood Program in St. Albans, VT began collecting table scraps to feed to the local pigs!  Staff at the center realized that they had a lot of waste from two snack times and lunch and thought they should put that “waste” to use!

Each classroom has a bucket and when kids are done with snack and lunch, instead of throwing their garbage away, they throw all edible scraps into the pig bucket!  The kids enjoy feeding the pigs, although they’re doing it remotely.  The center took a picture of their scraps being fed to the pigs so the kids could see their hard work pay off!    Eventually they want to take a field trip to the farm so the kids we can see their pigs.   In the meantime, they will continue collecting table scraps.

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The Green Byrne Center in Philadelphia is not only moving, they are eating well too.  As part of their total wellness and Let’s Move Child Care approach they have incorporated fine dining into their day.  Chef Don works every day to put delicious and nutritious meals on the table for the children using local and organic products. 

Chef Don, is pictured here, cooking lunch of brown rice, fish, string beans and cantaloupe.

To help fund this change at the center they have started offering families take home meals once a month as a fundraiser. 

When asked about the project Ellen August Booth, the Director,  reported the project was started as a way to help finance the new meal program and full time chef.  They do a monthly “Dinner to Go”  which is a complete meal including homemade dessert for $20.00. It could feed a small family of four.  They usually sell at least 50 dinners and make about $1,000 per fundraiser. The popularity of this fundraiser is growing and now folks in the building are also ordering dinners to go.   “Families are loving these special treats.  Some meals are more geared for the families or children and some are special for “Date Night” said Booth.

 This has really turned into a win win for Green Byrne; support for the center and nutritious, convenient dinners for busy working parents.   Let’s Eat Child Care!  Maybe Green Byrne can start a new trend.

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Something to Celebrate in Chicago (Besides Octoberfest on the Plaza !)

The child care center at 610 South Canal Street in Chicago, CCC Learning Center, celebrated its 20th anniversary as a GSA Child Care Center.   The original program operating in 1991 cared for children 15 months to prekindergarten.  Through the years the demand necessitated the addition of a kindergarten/5 year old program as well as infant care and the center now cares for 86 children on a daily basis.  The center also recently received its re-accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for the sixth time.  This accreditation is one of the most prestigious available to child care centers across the nation and requires numerous hours of documentation and  preparation on facility and programmatic levels to obtain and keep.  

Elizabeth Themelis, Director of GSA’s Child Care Program, presented a plaque to the CCC Learning Center’s co-owners, Gloria Langston and Carla Fishel, in recognition of their NAEYC accreditation at a small ceremony on September 23rd.  They are pictured  from right to left, with PBS Great Lakes Regional Child Care Coordinator Brenda Roldan.

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Building Blocks Child Care Center Hosts a Community Summer Carnival

While our GSA child care programs provide high quality, affordable child care to federal families, the program also prides itself for being a community partner.   Many of the child care centers enroll children whose parents work in the communities where the center is located.  The culture of many of the child care programs focus on supporting and reaching out to communities and bringing them into the center.  

On August 18, 2011,  Easter Seals Building Blocks Child Care Center in Auburn, WA hosted an end of summer celebration with Federal and community families, as well as federal and community partners.  Everyone joined together for a BBQ, homemade lemonade, games, bounce house and demonstrations by Customs and Border Patrol.  The Puget Sound Field Office provided space and tables and chairs for the event.  According to Lara Canada, Director of Building Blocks, children from each classroom participated in games with their families; “we had a 99.8% participation rate.  It was a huge success.”   

GSA Child Care Programs strive to meet the NAEYC requirements for accreditation.  One standard is dedicated specifically to Families and Community Relationships.  Criteria 7.A.12 and 7.A.14 require the program to facilitate opportunities for families to meet with one another on a formal and informal basis, work together, and provide support for each other.  Program staff and families work together to plan events.   The carnival demonstrated Building Blocks dedication to families while showcasing their ability to partner with local community vendors and supporters and have fun!

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The blistering heat and blaring sun were unable to interrupt the excitement and enthusiasm in Newark on July 11th as federal and local officials, families, teachers and children gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the renovation and expansion of the Newark Federal Kids Care Child Care Center.

The renovation/expansion of the child care facility, located on the first floor of the Peter W. Rodino Federal Building in Newark, New Jersey was managed by New Jersey Service Center architect Anne Marie Michael, and designed by the architectural firm of Messick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker Architects LLP.

The original Newark Federal Kids center was opened in 1990 with roughly 4000 square feet of space able to accommodate approximately 56 children. The renovation and expansion has added an additional 1000 square feet to the center, in order to meet the growing need for child care at this location.  

Michael sang the National Anthem which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance recited by the children of Newark Federal Kids center. Regional Administrator Denise Pease was the keynote speaker and painted a picture of GSA’s commitment to continue improving federal child care centers through programs and partnerships like the center’s partnership with The First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative.

In her remarks Pease also thanked Michael, Magda Marcano from the GSA Child Care Division, contracting officers Rochelle Powell and Brenda Yates for their work on the project, and Gary Walz, Chris Braham from the Newark Service Center as well as student intern Chelsea Reed for their help with the ceremony.   The Newark Federal Kids center is an endorced EcoHealthy center that is dedicated to providing a safe and healthy environment for children to grow and learn while promoting and setting an example of sustainability.

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A partnership of the General Services Administration (GSA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the FAA (DOT) Child Development Center, Inc.’s Board of Directors, and the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture marked the dedication of the newly planted garden for the FAA (DOT) Child Development Center at the FAA building in Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 7th.    This project started in the summer of 2010, when Brad Twinam, the GSA Property Manager for the two FAA buildings on Independence Avenue, returned from the annual GSA Child Care Conference. At the conference, Brad heard Darren DeStefano, a GSA Horticulturist, talk about the benefits of children’s gardens. Brad asked the staff of the FAA (DOT) Child Development Center (operated by Children’s Choice Learning Center) if they were interested in starting a children’s garden. Sharleen Smith, the Director of the FAA (DOT) Child Development Center, told Brad that the American Farm Bureau, which is across the street from the center, had already been sending volunteers to do educational lessons with the preschool about planting and farming, so the garden would be a perfect extension of that educational experience.

The children plant and maintain the garden as part of their curriculum on nutrition and health.  The children will do the bulk of the work in the garden, but a group of adult volunteers will help them with organizing, weeding and watering on the weekends and holidays, when the children will not be on site.

The garden consists of four planting beds, 24×2.48 feet, so there is about 192 square feet of garden. During the first year, the emphasis will be on planting a sensory garden. There will also be a “roly poly pig” composter to teach the children valuable lessons about sustainability.   The first planting day was held on March 29, and volunteers from the partners involved in the project developed several stations for the children to rotate through and actually do the planting. After the dedication of the garden on June 7th, the planting was completed, and the children participated in several stations to teach them more about composting and gardening.  The children also presented the volunteers with a thank you gift that they had made and Property Management then sponsored a cookout in the garden to thank all of the federal and community volunteers for their help.

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Participating in Week of the Young Child  (WOYC) activities,  Regional Administrator George Northcroft and Southern Service Center Director Cameron Doss visited the Joyful Noise Child Care Center in the Robert Duncan Building in Portland, Oregon.  Northcroft and Doss toured the facility and met with children to discuss their recent study of buildings in downtown Portland. The 4 and 5 year old children had photographed their favorite Portland buildings, drew blue prints and constructed their own models of the buildings.   The children engaged Northcroft and Doss with questions like “what do you do? And does your building have a ping pong table in it like my dad’s building?” 

 During the week Northcroft and other GSA officials participated in a variety of events to recognize and thank the staffs for their hard work at all of our child care centers. 

Look for more stories and photos in our WOYC 2011 newsletter coming soon.   

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