Food has to eat, too. To that end, a Northern Arizona University student organization of green thumbs and green minds is running a volunteer, grant-funded program that collects food scraps from a campus dining hall and recycles it as compost for a nearby garden.

The composting program is a collaboration between the NAU Office of Sustainability, Dining Services and Students for Sustainable Living and Urban Gardening, also known as SSLUG. Basecamp, for now, is the kitchens of South Dining and a garden outside SBS West.

Ian Dixon-McDonald, SSLUG coordinator, helped start the garden last spring as a class project. After securing a grant for that as well, Dixon-McDonald, a graduate students in sustainable communities, and other students started tending the quarter-acre patch of land. On their plot they have planted trees, perennials, herbs and fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, corn, beans and squash.

Then Deja Walker, a senior in environmental studies and employee at the Center for Sustainable Environments, decided to get on board by resurrecting the campus composting program.

NAU used to run a large composting program, but it closed in 2003 because of costs and inadequate equipment.

But there was still a place for composting on campus. Literally, that would be the new SSLUG garden.

"We have a lot of waste that comes out of these dining halls that's organic waste, and that can be taken and utilized for the garden and put into use there, and improving the soils there. And also, it reduces the cost of going to landfills and the production of methane and the contribution of those gases going into our atmosphere and further depletion," said Walker, who pitched the small pilot program to the Office of Sustainability. "So it's definitely very, very valuable not only for NAU but for Flagstaff — and, I think the world, basically."

With about $1,500 in hand, the students purchased eight shoulder-high composting bins and about half a dozen small bins for the South Dining kitchen workers to toss their uncooked fruit and vegetable scraps in.

Every weekday, a couple of SSLUG volunteers pick up the kitchen bins, roll them down the sidewalk to the garden, and transfer the "green" scraps into the composting bins. Inside the larger bins, they mix the kitchen waste with "brown" waste, such as dry leaves, twigs and straw. Green matter can also include grass and other fresh yard trimmings.

After about four or five months, the mixture should be properly decomposed and ready to spread in the garden — just in time for pleasant, springy gardening weather. They have been actually composting since January. One bin is already full.

And no, it doesn't smell.

"Usually it smells good. If it smells it's because you have too much of the green stuff in it — too much kitchen scraps and not enough dry, brown wastes in it," said Dixon-McDonald. "If you get the right ratio then it shouldn't smell at all."

The students hope the program grows — more equipment, more gardens, more people participating.

Dixon- McDonald said he wants diners to start sorting their leftovers at the trash bins before they leave the cafeteria. For now, he's grateful for the cooperation from dining staff.

He added that the composting project has drawn en enthusiastic internal response too. About 10 volunteers help with daily operations, with about 10 or 15 more on a backup list.

"I think one part of it is it's a very tangible thing to do," he said.

Dixon-McDonald said the project appeals to the university's stated commitment to sustainability. He said the project, which doesn't cost NAU any money, could even save in the long run by cutting down on waste sent to the landfill.

"A lot of it had to do with the university's own sustainability mission, and there's a lot in there that we really tapped in on in framing what we were doing," he said.

Hillary Davis can be reached at hdavis@azdailysun.com or 556-2261.

On the Web:

Northern Arizona University SSLUG: www.gardensslug.org

NAU Center for Sustainable Environments: www.cefns.nau.edu/Academic/CSE/

NAU office of Sustainability: home.nau.edu/sustain/