Director Sheila McQuaid and Brooke Bereznak, representing 530 Food Rescue, had a booth at Gridley’s inaugural Earth Day Block Party.

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - On April 12, Gridley City Councilmember Catalina Sanchez hosted Gridley’s inaugural Earth Day Block Party at the Magnolia Terrace cul-de-sac next to St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. The official Earth Day is April 22.  

There were about a dozen booths, including CAL FIRE (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection), Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control District (Mosquito Abatement), 530 Food Rescue and St. Timothy’s plant booth. In addition, there were mini yoga classes and a composting workshop.  

Music and food were also part of the event.       

Visitors could tour the St. Timothy’s Community Garden, where Gridley residents can have their own gardening patch as the gate is always open. Free compost is available and the community garden accepts compostable items such as food scraps from the public for this purpose.  

The CAL FIRE booth had free stickers, erasers, pencils and coloring books for the youth. 

Coloring books, a cloth bag and other free items were at the Mosquito Abatement booth. A large display of mounted insects there fascinated visitors. Vector ecologist Ryan Rothenwander was there to raise awareness of the need for mosquito control.

Vector ecologist Ryan Rothenwander is with the Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control District insect collection.  

Jason Mandly of Butte County Air Quality Management District spoke about the program that swaps out wood- burning stoves for newer, cleaner wood stoves, gas or electric options. About 700 stoves have been swapped out in the county during the last 10 years. A similar program exists for swapping out old farm equipment, such as tractors, sweepers, shakers and harvesters for newer equipment that uses Tier 4 Diesel or electric models. Tier 4 Diesel is much cleaner than the old diesel, according to Mandly.

In conjunction with other food banks, 530 Food Rescue collects edible food left over from businesses that would otherwise be thrown away.  The food is then distributed to those in need. According to director Sheila McQuaid, the organization has rescued more than 550,000 pounds of food in three years. 

Soil ecologist Janelle Luke shows living organisms in compost under the microscope.

For the composting workshop, a microscope was set up by soil ecologist Janelle Luke, showing the living organisms that make compost superior to potting soil. 

“One of the most important things about compost is all of the things that live in it, such as amoebas, nematodes, etc. Bagged soils don’t have anything living in them,” Luke said. 

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church Community Garden is free to the public. 

According to Luke, California legislation passed in 2016 requires that all organic waste be kept out of the landfills. Although Gridley received a waiver because of low population, Luke pointed out, it will probably be part of the mandate at some point. 

The Earth Day Block Party raised community awareness on a variety of environmental issues.