Student Startups are preparing innovative ecological feed in the context of Junior Achievement Greece
Groups of EPAL(Vocational Senior High School) students will use food residues and organic materials to make ecological feed with the method of composting
Innovative feed from food residues, for food producing animals and pets, plan to prepare students of the 1st EPAL of Didymoteicho “Eugenios Eugenides” in the framework of the program “Virtual Enterprise 2022” of Junior Achievement Greece, having as an inspirational mentor the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, with whom they had, recently, their first online meeting.
This year is the first time that Junior Achievement Greece, the non-profit educational organization of entrepreneurship programs/competitions for pupils and students, introduces the institution of Inspirational Mentor to student Startups, so as to inspire, empower and advise children in their effort to create their own “business.”
The President of the Republic responded positively to the invitation, “adopting” the 1st EPAL of Didymoteicho “Eugenios Eugenides” and, as shown by the first online meeting, the children, who have on their side as valuable supporters their teachers Kyriaki Keramitsoglou, Theodoros Litseselidis and Anna Karmidaki, are excited with the form that the program has taken this year.
A total of 33 students of the 1st EPAL of Didymoteicho (the third grade of Food Technologists, the second grade of Agriculture, Food and Environment and the second grade of Management Economics) have joined ideas and creative forces to give “flesh and bones” to the “Zoompoukitses of Evros”, as they have named their “business”, which will not only produce animal feed but also compost, as the aim is to ensure its ecological footprint.
“I learn that students have a significant performance in the “Virtual Enterprise” program of Junior Achievement Greece, this very important program that shows them the way of entrepreneurship, while at the same time through this action they acquire skills very useful for their lives. They create “businesses”, leveraging modern technologies, the principles of circular economy and respect for the environment.All that is happening is very important and especially the 1st EPAL of Didymoteicho had had great successes in the past and I am very happy about it”, said the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, addressing the children, who made sure to inform her in detail about their plans.
“The idea is excellent, because it has to do with a very big problem of modern cities which is waste management. Our grandparents had ways of not letting anything go to waste and be thrown away. We, the next generations, have gone through a crisis of excessive consumerism and mismanagement of waste. Therefore, the utilization of organic waste for the manufacture of animal feed is very important”, underlined Mrs. Sakellaropoulou, placing particular emphasis on the fact that “children involve the economy of the region”, using raw materials (also) from supermarkets, stressed the President of the Republic and congratulated both the children and the teachers who supported the effort.
The preparation of animal feed is not, however, the only goal of this year’s participation of the school in the Junior Achievement Greece program, which every year attracts the interest of more and more schools around Greece, helping hundreds of children to get a first glimpse of the operation of a business, before they enter the labor market. The students of the 1st EPAL of Didymoteicho have set a goal, their feed to be environmentally friendly and have a positive ecological sign.
“We want to have zero waste. The remains of food will be composted with the Bokashi method. This method has the advantage of composting very quickly. In other words, we will get organic matter, fertilizer, in about four weeks and the most important thing is that in this way we can also compost cooked foods and animal products, which are not composted in any other way”, explained the Professor-Agronomist Mrs. Keramitsoglou.
Finally, it is worth noting that after the online meeting with the students of the 1st EPAL of Didymoteicho “Eugenios Eugenides”, the President sent to the school five laptops and three tablets to technologically enhance the school. Observing the difficulties that the internet chat had with the internet connection and the microphone for the children to be heard, he wanted to help by sending this equipment.
