By Khalailah Bynoe
The Brooklyn College (BC) Sustainability Club’s pumpkin smash event was a success.
Fifty participants came out to smash a pumpkin, which was a much-needed de-stress from midterms. The event was held on Nov. 11 at the BC Eats Garden. There was pizza, drinks, and piles of pumpkins waiting to be smashed and composted. In attendance were BC clubs and partners: the Public Health and Medicine Club, TREEage Club, NYPIRG, Flatbush Food Co-op, and Big Reuse.
BC student and pumpkin thrower, Roma Yermakova, told The Vanguard, “I did bring my own pumpkin today. It was on my porch [it] served for a good three weeks, and it was its time to go […] it’s time for it to be reborn into compost.”
Yermakova continued, “I was mostly just excited about getting rid of my pumpkin in a more eco way.”
The Flatbush Co-op, which has worked with BC’s Sustainability Club in the past, had its own table.
“We are a community-owned food cooperative, and one of our core tenets is sustainability. So we like to help out with the BC Sustainability Club. We’ve done a few different events with them over the years. We were also able to provide them with some pumpkins to smash today from our produce,” Marketing and Members-Owner Services Manager at Flatbush Food Co-op, Leah Danger, told The Vanguard.
“I just wanted to also mention that twice a year we do a recycling event at our store in collaboration with the Lower East Side Ecology Center, where we recycle papers, electronics, and textiles.”
We host many community events involving sustainability, involving the kids, involving the community, and I think that’s important.” Outreach Coordinator at Flatbush Food Co-op, Joanna Wactor, told The Vanguard.
While in the end, all of the pumpkins will have a purpose, some were especially special.
“We have striped pumpkins and gourds, […] that’ll be good to grow in the garden themselves [Sustainability Club],” Former Sustainability Club President, CUNY Climate Scholar, and Sustainability Council Member, Carina Alessandro, told the Vanguard.
Not all of the pumpkins were smashed.
“The Public Health and Medicine Club […] took pumpkins in advance for their food prep. So we’re just utilizing them the best [in] as many ways we could,” said Alessandro.
Once all the smashing is done, the composting job is just beginning. Alessandro says, “After we smash them, we have shovels. I’m going to put them in our compost bin, that […] Big Reuse donated to us last year. Because usually at a pumpkin smash, there’ll be a master composter, and I’m one of those. […] I get to use a shovel and try to get them to smaller pieces that compost more easily. And the compost is going to go to the gardens on campus.”
Outreach Coordinator at Big Reuse, Onasis Cirineo, shared with The Vanguard their mission.
“Big Reuse, we’re an environmental nonprofit here in New York City. Our mission is to help combat climate change through community-based and zero-waste initiatives. We help administer a lot of the master composting programs here in the city. We work a lot with community partners and all the boroughs to help bring zero-waste here to the city. […] Whether we do community composting, educational workshops, or on-the-ground street tree care.” Cirineo continues.
“We really just try to tell New Yorkers there’s a plethora of […] ways to […] give back [and] to be green.”
Keeping a watchful eye and ensuring everybody was safe was Sustainability Coordinator, Office of Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability, Stalin Haeger-Espinal.
The Pumpkin Smash has been running for the past three years. “It was a lot [of] fun, and we always use all the smashed pumpkins that are left over from, like, the holidays and stuff, and give them to the community gardens and the BC Eats garden. […] Because they use that and turn [it] into compost that helps the gardens on campus have a better cultivation and crop season next year,” Haeger-Espinal is also an alum who was actually a part of the Sustainability Club as an undergraduate in 2018. He came back in 2022 as the Sustainability Coordinator.
The TREEage Club showed support for the event.
“This is our third time participating in the annual Brooklyn College pumpkin smash that’s facilitated by the Sustainability Club. We really enjoy coming out to show support and also rep our club alongside other sustainability clubs on campus,” TREEage Club President and Campus Organizer, Leila M. Tazi, told The Vanguard.
The president and vice president of the Sustainability Club hope that events like this will get everybody more involved in sustainability.
“We’re here to educate people about composting and promote BC Eats, the garden, and come together and just have some fun after Halloween. We’re actively doing a lot of work around composting and collecting food scraps, and it’s really in the works. We’re getting a lot more hot box-style bins on campus. So this year specifically, we’re really hoping to […] streamline that process,” Tommy Richards, BC Sustainability Club President, told the Vanguard.
“We’ve been having it for a few years now. […] But it’s a great way for students to get involved with sustainability on campus, because a lot of students, since it’s a commuting school, may not know about what’s going on with sustainability on campus. But it’s also a great way after Halloween to find sustainable ways to […] compost your pumpkins. And it’s just a great way for everybody to feel involved,” BC Sustainability Club Vice President Annalise Grekalski told The Vanguard.
Sustainability was not the only change being promoted; BC’s NYPIRG had a table to encourage people to get their voices heard.
“We’re a student advocacy group on campus. […] Today we’re trying to get people to sign up for an event called the People’s Money, which is basically a democracy driven event where […] we’re trying to get regular everyday citizens and students to […] get involved with participatory budgeting,” Project Coordinator at BC NYPIRG, Mamadou Diallo, told The Vanguard.
“Basically just making it so that people that […] didn’t really get a say in how […] the city is developed can finally get a chance to […] get involved in some type of way,” Diallo continues, “This is just about increasing student power and […] making it so that people […] engage with their community more.
Flatbush Food Co-op is hosting a blood drive on Dec. 26 from 12-6 pm at 1415 Cortelyou Road.
For more information about the clubs and organizations mentioned, visit @bcsustainabilityclub, @bc.phamclub, @bc_treeage_club, @brooklyn_nypirg, @flatbushfood, and @bigreuse.