Sustainable Ewing Green Team

“It takes a Village” at the Ewing Community Gardens

September 28, 2013November 4, 2016Leave a comment

It was a great day last Saturday! With the help and energy of yet another contingent of TCNJ student volunteers under the direction of Professor Michael Nordquist and the Community Gardens Committee we accomplished what we have been trying to do all season – decimate a huge mulch pile and put its contents onto the paths of the Ewing Community Gardens on Whitehead Road Extension. This was a fabulous accomplishment and will make a tremendous difference to the gardeners who use the site. Gardeners have already commented on how much easier the site is to use this year since they didn’t have to do quite so much bushwhacking to get to their plots. The efforts of the students and gardeners Saturday have sustained and greatly improved upon our previous efforts. In addition, we were delighted to have the compost bins set up for the gardeners use. Now they won’t have to cart out the weedy debris but can be more environmentally friendly and compost it on site. The weeding and the planting efforts that they contributed were just the icing on the cake!

Ewing Township, the Green Team and most especially the community gardeners have been the recipients of a number of student volunteer community service days this year and are all deeply grateful for all of the hard work that the students put in. We believe that in addition to implementing more environmentally friendly practices at the gardens, the cleanup days, so wonderfully supported by the students, are helping to create the community in our community gardens.

For more photos from the day, check our Photos page.

TCNJ Community Service Fraternity Alpha Phi Omega to Host Feed Our Friends 5K and Fun Walk on Oct 13th

September 26, 2013November 4, 2016Leave a comment

TCNJ fraternity Alpha Phi Omega is hosting the 5th Annual Feed Our Friends 5K Run and Fun Walk to benefit the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen on Sunday, October 13th. Registration begins at 8:30, the Fun Walk begins at 9 and the 5K begins at 10 a.m. from The College of New Jersey Student Center.

Costs

$15 for the Fun Walk for non TCNJ students; $10 for students
$20 for the 5K for non TCNJ students; $15 for students.
$10 for the 5K for groups of 10 or more.
Checks should be made payable to Alpha Phi Omega – TCNJ

See the Flyer and Registration Form for more information.

Ewing Community Gardens Fall Clean Up This Saturday

September 20, 2013November 4, 2016Leave a comment

A Fall Workday Planned for Sept 21^stfrom 9 – 5. All hands are needed.

This is a heads up that a site clean up for the Community Gardens is planned for this Saturday, the 21st from 9 – 5. We are extremely fortunate in that we are going to have the volunteer services of a team of Bonner and other TCNJ students. We also hope that some of the gardeners will participate.

We ask for your help with our agenda for the day. All contributions of newspaper (no glossy pages) and cardboard would be most appreciated for weed suppression in the paths. We also desperately need wheelbarrows (and possibly shovels) to move the mulch. If you have tools that we could use for the day we would be very grateful. Any contributions of homemade goodies to sustain the workers would also be gratefully accepted. And finally, if you could donate an hour or two of your time weeding, moving mulch, etc., it would be incredibly helpful. We have a lot of work facing us and as they say, many hands make light work.

Thanks to all for their anticipated assistance and community spirit.

Ewing Community Gardens Meeting

September 16, 2013November 4, 2016Leave a comment

The September Meeting of the Ewing Community Gardens will be held this Wednesday from 6:30 – 8 p.m. at the Gardens on Whitehead Road Extension. An election will be held to determine the garden leadership for the next gardening season. All 2013 plotholders are eligble to vote. Please come and help determine the future of Ewing’s community of gardeners.

Rain Location: Ewing Senior and Community Center

Dispose of Your Unused Medications Safely on National Take Back Day

September 4, 2013November 4, 2016Leave a comment

If your your medicine cabinet is filled with expired drugs or medications that you no longer use, and you are concerned about detrimental environmental effects from improper disposal, here is the information that you need to properly dispose of them.

The Ewing Police Department will be participating in the DEA’s twice yearly National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day which will take place on Saturday, October 26, 2013, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity for those who missed the previous events, or who have subsequently accumulated unwanted, unused prescription drugs, to safely dispose of those medications. Just go to the Ewing Police Department at 2 Jake Garzio Drive. Enter the main door and make a left to go down the hallway to the Police Department. Ewing Police will have an officer between 10 and 2 to take the items.

All medications are accepted, prescription and over-the-counter, as well as liquids. Hypodermic needles are not accepted. The disposal is handled completely securely; all accepted medications with any labels that you leave on the containers are placed in a large cardboard box, lined with plastic. At the end of the day the contents are taken to the prosecutor’s office. The DEA will pick up and incinerate.

Guidelines for Drug Disposal

If you are unable to participate on the day the FDA’s guidelines for proper drug disposal follow:

Follow any specific disposal instructions on the drug label or patient information that accompanies the medication. Do not flush prescription drugs down the toilet unless this information specifically instructs you to do so.
If no instructions are given on the drug label and no take-back program is available in your area, take them out of their original containers and mix them with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter — to make the medication less appealing and unrecognizable — then put them in a sealable bag, empty can, or other container to prevent the medication from leaking or breaking out of a garbage bag.

You should also remove any identifying information on the label to protect your identity and privacy.

Despite the safety reasons for flushing drugs, some people are questioning the practice because of concerns about trace levels of drug residues found in surface water, such as rivers and lakes, and in some community drinking water supplies. However, the main way drug residues enter water systems is by people taking medications and then naturally passing them through their bodies. That said, the FDA does not want to add drug residues into water systems unnecessarily. The agency reviewed its drug labels to identify products with disposal directions recommending flushing or disposal down the sink. This continuously revised listing can be found at FDA’s Web page on Disposal of Unused Medicines.