Crayon Collection

HoW (habitsofwaste.org)- this program focuses on changing habitual behaviors of the masses that are negatively impacting the environment. As social change makers, we believe in the power of the individual to make small adjustments within their daily lives to protect the planet and combat climate change. With the grass roots momentum we create, we then use this to put pressure on corporations and legislature to create lasting change needed to protect our planet. Our goal is to activate large numbers of people with accessible behavior changes that collectively have a greater impact than a few people doing it "perfectly." We also activate large numbers of supporters to take action by using our P2A platform to send emails out to various corporations through our difference campaigns (con Sch O).At Habits of Waste, we provide solutions, allowing everyday individuals to live more eco-consciously without being overwhelmed or feeling a sense of failure. We call this being an "imperfect environmentalist". This is the notion that each person can do their part to protect our planet and combat climate change without an "all or nothing" mindset. Using a sociological approach, we observe habitual actions in society that are contributing to the climate crisis and create accessible actions for individuals resulting in true impactful change. Being able to empower individuals by showing them that they matter, and that their actions matter is what allows us to activate our grass-roots community while continuously putting pressure from the top down across legislation and within large corporations.In many cases, that means changing systems like we did with #CutOutCutlery which convinced the four major food delivery apps GrubHub, UberEats, PostMates and DoorDash to change their default setting to provide plastic cutlery only upon request. Every year, Americans use over 40 BILLION pieces of single-use plastic cutlery. Many of these pieces of cutlery are thrown 'away' without being used or only used for a few minutes despite the fact that they are not recyclable and will not degrade for hundreds of years. In 2022, we leveraged the momentum of #CutOutCutlery's success and turned our attention to Chipotle, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King, national chain restaurants in our sights that should install an "Opt-IN for single-use plastic cutlery (and accessories)" feature on their applications and in their restaurants to provide users with these items BY REQUEST only thereby eliminating much unnecessary waste. McDonald's UK and Australia joined in to the #CutOutCutlery movement which also includes accessories i.e., straws, napkins, and condiments to be available by request as well. There is good news to report in 2022, Canada has banned most single-use plastic and joins 20 other countries around the world such as France who has created a new law eliminating all single use plastic cutlery and accessories. We create educational campaigns informing the public of the challenges, with simple achievable actions that they can take to make an impact. Our focus is on solutions and empowering the individual to act. It doesn't have to be all or nothing, small changes can make a big impact when done collectively in society. HoW creates changes in society increasing eco-consciousness with a call to action on plastic straws, cutlery, bags, palm oil, food waste, energy, media, water, and air pollution and promoting a plant-based diet. HoW shines light on habitual behaviors of waste and offers ways individuals can take action to make the difference needed for the planet to survive. In 2022 we expanded our latest campaigns by adding Ship Greener to the current Ship Naked campaign in a partnership with UPS to reduce the amount of unnecessary excess packaging for online shipping orders. Our Lights, Camera, Plastic? (LCP) campaign garner more momentum with more shows adopting the campaign which seeks to remove single-use plastic from the screen (TV and Film) and replace with reusables to establish a new societal norm, which impacts 6 billion viewers per year.

Crayon Recycling Program - the crayon recycling program provides a sustainable environmental solution to restaurants and hotels that offer free crayons to children when they dine. Instead of throwing these crayons away after each meal, often after a single use, we establish a collection process for each location and ensure these gently used crayons are donated to a local school in need of supplies. We pair the schools with the restaurants. Under this model, Crayon Collection acts as the liaison between impoverished schools and a local restaurant collection partner; we train restaurants, hotels, and community partners on how to collect gently used crayons. We then identify and partner with schools in need. From there, we connect restaurants and businesses to their local in-need schools. We then monitor (con Sch O) the process and ensure the gently used crayons are appropriately reallocated on a monthly basis. The process is highly localized and yet supported nationally by Crayon Collection in order to create sustainable community relationships between our collection partners and the schools we pair them with, which are Head Start centers & Title 1 elementary schools. To date our impact has been significant: over 22 million crayons were redirected from landfill and donated to school partners since our inception, and we have served over 2 million children as crayon recipients. Since 2009 (founder Sheila Morovati operated the program on her own before Crayon Collection was officially formed as a non-profit organization in 2013), we have achieved the following (note- quantitative information below is through December 31,2021):1) Redirected over 22 million crayons from landfill and donated to school partners since our inception.2) Served over 2 million children as crayon recipients 3) Over 2,500 Title 1 elementary schools have been connected with a restaurant collection site nationwide4) Over 11,000 Head Start Centers have received crayons. Due to the pandemic the program halted temporarily as remote learning continued and there was a delay in organizations accepted gently used materials, however we were still able to formally establish a partnership with Region 9 Head Start, a district that serves 4 states and support over 200 agencies and 130,000 children in 2020. In 2021 we began discussions with the Head Start Midwest region for extension in 2022, which was unfortunately delayed as restaurants and schools were still recovering from covid impacts. We are revisiting this opportunity in 2023. 5.) Set a Guinness World Record by donating 1,009,500 crayons to 700 LAUSD teachers in an effort to raise awareness.

Arts in Education Program- Crayon Collection seeks to re-infuse art education in schools around the nation. We do this by investing significant resources in our Arts in Education program, which is a two-fold program supporting the artist inspired education series and the artist rotation initiative. Our Arts in Education program is designed to supplement the free crayons we help facilitate to Head Start Centers, Title 1 Elementary schools and after school programs and ensure access to free, standards-based, best in class art education resources for our classroom partners. Working together with teachers we have 16 artist inspired projects on our roster and each project meets or exceeds common core standards as well as social emotional learning. This year we expanded our reach by partnering with Penguin (con Sch O) Random House to launch new curriculum called "Letters for Change" which inspired elementary school children to write advocacy letters to Dr. Jill Biden about the importance of keeping crayons out of landfills and putting them in the hands of those that may not otherwise have a still good crayon. We had 126 schools, libraries and museums download the curriculum and over 2,500 students engage in letter writing. Penguin shared the curriculum in their Penguin Classroom newsletter that is sent to 135,000 educators, teachers, librarians, and key decision makers in the educational space.The artist inspired education series engages local artists in developing instructional strategies that are uniquely designed for children working with our reallocated crayons, while complying with national and state standards for the visual arts. These resources take crayons to another level beyond simple coloring; in fact, our artists design and develop interesting projects utilizing these gently used crayons to support learning, creative expression, and intellectual development. This artistic mentoring process adds a deeper level to art education using a valuable and relatable resource, crayons, that would otherwise have been thrown away. We have a formal partnership with the Region 9 Head Start Association, which has given us access to their classrooms so that we could teach our program to their students as well as their teachers supporting us by applying new artist project ideas to early learning head start standards. The artist rotation initiative engages highly qualified U.S. based artists and cultural ambassadors from a variety of backgrounds to visit our classrooms and offer children access to a diverse range of art expression. Prior to Covid-19, our volunteer artists rotate classrooms every few months. This initiative allows for artists to volunteer their time in a meaningful and measurable way that connects students with professional artists where they would otherwise have no art education due to lack of public funding.

Color Kindness Program- while our partnerships with national restaurant and hotel chains offer tremendous impact and scale, allowing us to save millions of crayons from landfills each year, we also believe in a grass-roots collection model that engages families, children, and communities in environmentalism as well as philanthropy and empathy. The elegance of the Crayon Collection model lies in its simplicity as anyone can begin a collection through their local school, library, neighborhood girl scouts/boy scouts club, or faith community and ensure these lightly loved crayons reach the hands of teachers and students in their local school district. In 2022 we continued the process of collecting crayons and had tremendous support from churches, youth groups and other organizations looking to support others during the pandemic. We had corporations collect crayons to get involved in getting back and distributing to local schools in need. Information below pertains to all programs described in Part III, lines 4(a)-(c) as well as the above program described in Schedule OProgrammatic structuresIn order to encourage grass-roots crayon recycling programs, particularly among families and children, we invest significant resources in social and digital media strategy and outreach, in order to facilitate viral publicity amongst our supporters. Some of our notable campaigns have included National Crayon Day, National Crayon Collection Month (every August), a national back-to-school campaign, and our National Art Education program that is accessible to everyone for free. Plus, under the HoW program we have the now widely recognized #CutOutCutlery campaign that convinced major food delivery apps to change their default setting to provide plastic cutlery only upon request. In 2022 we were able to expand our HoW programs 8 Meals, Ship Naked, and LCP. Our community-based programs are focused on inspiring communities everywhere to do their part an effort to protect the environment and support a local school in need, by providing crayon and art education resources plus lessons in environmental stewardship. Ambassador volunteers Our ambassador volunteer ranks bring together volunteers, partners, and community-based organizations to support Crayon Collection programming nationwide. The ambassadors were cultivated out of a desire to create a network of passionate individuals that will serve as a presence for Crayon Collection in their community, tasked with supporting our mission by spreading the word about our work, helping to expand Crayon Collection programs in their communities. Many companies have reached out to us throughout 2022 to find opportunities to bring their employees together to volunteer for our cause. Many packed crayons and wrote notes of kindness to both children in need of school supplies.