The act of collecting waste and putting it into a bin with soil and gradually adding more waste to the pile is composting.
The soil that is made from composting is called compost.
And, the container, or location of the pile is called a compost pile or often referred to as a compost.
Composting has two definitions: One is a noun and the other is a verb.
Noun: Decayed Organic Material Used as A Plant Fertilizer.
Verb: To make (vegetable matter, food waste, decomposable items or manure) into compost – other wise known as “composting”
Successful Composts are Well Balanced
Carbon (leaves, straw, wood chips, cardboard)
Nitrogen (vegetables, fruits and plants)
Moisture
Air
Some people refer to the carbon elements as the “browns” and the nitrogen elements as the “greens.”
To ensure that your compost is successful in creating nutrient rich soil to be reused be sure to stir the pile frequently, add soil as needed and try and shred or chop things when possible, adding a variety of items- will be your key to creating your own renewable energy compose.
A balance of compostable is important. Balancing nitrogen rich greens and plants, and items such as leaves and wood chips that are high carbon. Without enough nitrogen the pile will not be able to heat up. The decomposition process raises the heat of the pile to temperatures 100-140 degrees.
A balance of air and moisture in the compost allows the microorganisms to grow and break down the items and turn our waste into carbon dioxide and heat. If there is too much, and not enough soil and moisture then the microorganisms won’t be able to effectively decompose. Likewise, if there is too little oxygen the microbes may not be able to kill dangerous bacteria thats why adequate adequate air flow is important. Without air the bacteria will give off a foul smell.
Twelve- year old, Leo Berry, a member of the City of Carmel Promise Project and Green Action Club Youth Leaders and Helping Ninjas Founder, offered his public comments in support of a climate action plan on June 20, 2022 at the City of Carmel City Counsil Meeting.
Leo Berry, age 12, and other project youth leaders of Carmel, Indiana, provided public comment in support of a Climate Action Plan for Carmel at the June 20th City Council Meeting. Urging council members to vote yes to the Climate Action Plan and adapt the solutions and tools our city needs to address our changing climate and its effects. Alongside residents who offered public comment in support of the Climate Actin Plan were petitions to reduce the City’s carbon pollution.
“We’re so proud of these young people for stepping up to raise their voices on the most important issue of our time. And we’re grateful for CGI’s partnership with the Green Action Club.” said Leslie Webb, president, Carmel Green Initiative, Carmel, IN.
Helping Ninjas’ Leo Berry offered public comment in 2022, in support of adopting the City of Carmel’s first-ever Climate Action Plan.
At the time, Leo Berry was the youngest member of the community to have given public testimony at a Carmel City Council meeting.
Leo is a Stakeholder of the Climate Action Plan that was presented and soon after, passed.
“The Carmel Climate Action Plan would not have been possible without the crucial input from the Carmel community. The City of Carmel thanks all of those who contributed to this initiative.”
On August 1, 2022, Carmel City Council voted unanimously to adopt a Climate Action Plan for the City.
Leo Berry of Helping Ninjas mention in City of Carmel’s Climate Action Plan Acknowledgments:
In June 2022, Leo Berry was the youngest member of the community to have given public testimony at a Carmel City Council meeting. Leo is a CAP Stakeholder and plated an integral part of creating and establishing the Climate Action Plan presented for acceptance.
Watch the archived video of Helping Ninjas’ Leo Berry and Lindsey Berry offer public comment in support of adopting the City of Carmel’s first-ever Climate Action Plan.
Video of Leo and Helping Ninjas and fellow youth of the Mayor’s Promise Project and Carmel Green Initiative giving their testimony at the June 2022 City Council Meeting.
Jun 20, 2022 City Council Meeting 06-20-22 TRANSCRIPT: HELLO, LEO BERRY. WELCOME. >> HI, MY NAME IS LEO BERRY. I’LL BE SEVENTH GRADE AT CARMEL CLAYS SCHOOL. I LIVE AND THE TRIALS NEIGHBORHOOD IN WEST CARMEL. I’M HERE TODAY TO ASK YOU THAT YOU VOTE FOR THE CLIMATE REDUCTION PLAN TO PROTECT OUR FUTURE. I THINK IT’S VERY IMPORTANT BECAUSE OF CHOICES THAT SOCIETY MAKES NOW WILL DETERMINE IF WE THRIVE AND SURVIVE. I DO NOT WANT TO GROW UP IN A A WARMER CLIMATE DECREASES PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY. NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT. IF NOT TO LATE EFFORTS WILL CAUSE NEGATIVE AND POTENTIALLY IRREVERSIBLE CONSEQUENCES. GLOBAL WARMING, RISING SEA LEVELS AND FOOD INSECURITY. THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OUR COMMUNITIES IS AT STAKE. RETURN RESEARCH HAS SHOWN WARMING OF 35 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT TO PUSH THE MELTING OF ICE SHEETS AND TOP GREENLAND TO THE POINT OF NO RETURN. IT’S ENOUGH FROZEN WATER TO LIFT OCEANS 43 FEET. THIS WILL MAKE EARTH UNINHABITABLE TO HUMANS. ACCORDING TO SCIENTISTS OF 12 YEARS TO CUT MISSIONS AND HALF AND TO PREVENT CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE LATER THE CENTURY. TO REACH HIS GOAL DRAFT ARTICULATE WITH ALL OF US DOING OUR PART. TODAY I ASK YOU TO DO YOUR PART TO STAND UP AND BE A LEADER. WHILE I AM NOT OLD ENOUGH TO VOTE YET I’M OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE A SAY IN MY FUTURE AND FUTURE OF THE GENERATIONS TO COME. I’M OLD ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR CLIMATE AND TO SEE THE NEED FOR APPROVAL. I’M OLD ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND TIME IS RUNNING OUT. EVIDENCE CAN’T BE ANY CLEARER. I UNDERSTAND THAT TAKING ACTION NOW CAN MOVE AS TO MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD. I AM 13– IS IT CLEAR TO YOU? THANK YOU FOR MY TIME. >> THANK YOU VERY MUCH>>
Given its strong passion of maintaining a healthy and thriving city, Carmel is equipped with the tools to ensure it can play an active role in limiting the impacts of a changing climate.
Helping Ninjas packed over 1000 meals to families in need during their volunteer service hours at Second Helpings!
Helping Ninja students Sophia, Sid, Leo, Layla, Sawyer, and Skyler volunteered alongside Second Helpings Food Rescue and Hunger Relief Chefs, Staff and Volunteers. Our Helping Ninja volunteers had the opportunity to experience a hands-on food rescue and hunger relief kitchen at local non-profit Second Helpings in Indianapolis.
Helping Ninjas provided hands on help creating meals for those in need in their community.
For more than 25 years, Second Helpings has operated a three-part approach to addressing hunger and poverty in Central Indiana. Helping Ninja volunteers helped to pack home-made and nutritious meals made by the Second Helpings Culinary Kitchen into family meal to go kits.
Helping Ninjas helped to prepare family meal boxes. Each family meal box was unwrapped and stickers were placed on boxes and each meal was carefully weighed.
These meals were made in the Second Helpings Kitchen with rescued food that Second Helpings collects each week in their vans.
Five days each week, Second Helpings sends out refrigerated trucks and vans to rescue bread, produce, meat and much more from local donors.
That rescued food is used to create more than 5,500 nutritious meals each day that are distributed to more than 200 social service agencies that feed those in need.
Helping Ninjas helped to place stickers on the family meal kits.
Second Helping’s family meal kit stickers included the name of the dish, the date packed and a feedback review code sticker.
Helping Ninjas packed over 1000 meals to families in need during their volunteer service hours. Second Helpings provides more than 200 local nonprofit partners over 1 million meals each year, at no charge.
Each nutritious family meal was packed and weighed to be distributed later this afternoon to families in need.
Each meal approximately 2 lbs per family of four. Home-made and healthy meals that were packed today included pulled pork, ravioli and beef ravioli.
Helping Ninjas helped to pack over 1000 meals for families in need.
Collectively, Helping Ninjas packed 14 bins full of pre-packed nutritious meals that will be distributed to families in need. Each orange bin contains 18 family kit meals for a family of four.
These meals are provided for free to more than 100 partner organizations: day cares, community centers, after-school programs, homeless shelters, and more, that feed families in need.
Second Helpings prepares and delivers more than 5,500 nutritious meals EACH day.
The rescued food is turned into meals and is prepared by Second Helpings Chefs, Culinary Job Training program chefs and volunteers.
Each day, Second Helpings volunteers and staff rescue prepared and perishable food from wholesalers, retailers and restaurants – preventing unnecessary waste. Second Helpings rescues more than 3.7 million pounds of food a year.
Helping Ninja volunteers had the opportunity to put some of this rescued food to good use!
Volunteers helped to prep food for tomorrow’s chefs meals.
Helping Ninja volunteers opened packages of spring mix veggies, kale and snow peas for a nutrition packed stew that would be made in the kitchen tomorrow to be distributed to families in need.
Helping Ninjas prep fresh vegetables are prepped for tomorrow’s food rescue and hunger relief kitchen. Each veggie bin must be weighed and stored until tomorrow’s chefs begin!
Helping Ninja volunteers got to compost at Second Helpings.
The Second Helpings food rescue team is so efficient, that they recycle everything from cardboard food cartons to composting any food scraps and they also donate any non-perishable items not needed in the kitchen to local non-profits.
Compost food scraps collected from Second Helpings food preparation in the kitchen today.
Did You Know?
At Second Helpings, the rescued food is turned into meals for those in need by Second Helpings Chefs and Culinary Job Training program in-training chefs and volunteers?
And, Second Helpings was founded by three Chefs set forth to solve all four problems—food waste, hunger, job training, and a source of skilled labor for the local food service industry—with one solution: turn unused food into meals and jobs.
In 1998, the first full month of operation, 37 volunteers helped rescue 7,000 pounds of food and prepare 3,074 meals.
Today, Second Helpings is a community kitchen that prepares and delivers more than 1 million meals to the central Indiana community each year.
“We’re not just teaching people to cook. We’re providing an avenue for people to transform their own lives. We don’t just collect food. We rescue food, because we refuse to stand by and allow waste, while so many in our community do not have the healthy food they need to thrive.”
Second Helpings offers a free Culinary Job Training program available to unemployed and underemployed adults in Central Indiana. (It is a program which prepares adults with barriers to employment for careers in the food service industry.) More than 1,000 adults have graduated from their program. Second Helpings alumni are working in Central Indiana as cooks, executive chefs, business owners and culinary instructors.
Collectively with fellow classmates and friends, I had an opportunity to organize and host a Teens For Bold fundraising event.
Teens For Bold Fundraiser Event: Saturday, June 21, 2026
Teens for Bold fundraising initiative to reach our goal of $10000 was met & exceeded.
The event alone raised $5000. Fundraising event included an entrance ticket / donation & a silent auction & a euchre tournament & a 50/50 raffle. Over 50 attendees were present and enjoyed a Bold dance performance and routine.
Using personal funds purchased & donated $200 of items for our silent auction.
PHOTO OF SILENT AUCTION ITEM
To date, through outreach efforts & donations, I have helped to achieve percentage of our monetary goal.
As community outreach director at Teens for Bold, I was able to increase our reach by 240% on social media platforms.
Through my help with media directives and creative awareness efforts, Teens For Bold obtained two article features in our local community magazines: Carmel Magazine June 2026 issue and the Towne Post.
Helping Ninjas volunteer at VBS Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Carmel Indiana as Games Station Teen Volunteers.
Leo Berry, Layla, Berry, Skyler Berry and Mary volunteered as teen volunteers at the Games Station at the VBS in Carmel IN.
Each day over 250 children ages 5-11 visiting the games station, with daily ever-changing and new activities and games to play in both large and small groups. Games led included kickball, capture the flag, water balloon dodgeball, face paint, and more.
Benefits Gained as a Teen Volunteer at VBS
Leadership & Teaching Experience: Teens step into roles as camp counselors, and learn how to communicate effectively, manage group behavior, and guide younger children.
Teamwork, time management, and reliability.
active spiritual role models.
Community Building: It provides a safe, structured environment to build friendships with peers and adult mentors.
Responsibility & Patience: Guiding children through games and large-group activities teaches patience and empathy.
As the pasta drives were coming to a completion at nearby Kroger collection sites, the Second Helpings vans needed to be unloaded, our Helping Ninjas helped to unload and weigh in all of the communities’ pasta donations from the Second Helpings vans.
Helping Ninjas Dylan, Skyler, Beck, Leo and Mitch of Carmel, Indiana volunteered at Second Helpings during the annual Second Helpings Food Rescue and Hunger Relief Kitchen Great Pasta Push with Channel 8 WRTV.
On average, Second Helpings uses about 1,500 pounds of pasta per week and is used to create nutritious meals for people in central Indiana who may otherwise not get a full meal today.
As the pasta drives were coming to a completion at nearby Kroger collection sites, the Second Helpings vans needed to be unloaded, our Helping Ninjas helped to unload and weigh in all of the communities’ pasta donations from the Second Helpings vans.
Second Helpings relies on pasta drives and donations to bring much needed non-perishable items to our Hunger Relief kitchen.
Second Helpings prepares and delivers more than 5,500 nutritious meals each day. Nutritious meals are distributed to shelters, senior centers, after-school programs, and also delivered to the homes of those who can’t access food any other way.
Pasta doesn’t tend to get donated through our regular sources – the shelf life is so long that wholesalers and grocery stores don’t need to move it along as quickly.
Second Helpings Gr8 Pasta Push is an annual food drive.
Second Helpings and WISH-TV 8 for their seventh-annual Gr8 Pasta Push. Second Helpings uses roughly 1,500 lbs of pasta each week in the hunger relief kitchen. The first Gr8 Pasta Push was in November 2020, partially born out the basic needs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Donations of pasta (spaghetti and macaroni preferred) as well as monetary donations appreciated.
Interested in becoming a youth leader of a not-for-profit orginazation?
Helping Ninjas is now accepting youth leadership positions to help lead all Helping Ninjas initiatives for 2025.
Fill out the form below to become a Helping Ninja Leader.
Join our campaign to inspire youth to learn how to help the world.
About Helping Ninjas
Any child can join the Helping Ninjas.
Helping Ninjas, Inc. is a registered U.S. not-for profit organization. Membership to join is free. Helping Ninjas is an ongoing open-enrollment.
From acts of help at home to school to in your community every act, small or large, helps make the world a better place and by doing acts of help, is the only requirement to become Helping Ninja.
Registration form to join Helping Ninjas:
ZOOM PARTIES
Helping Ninjas hosts monthly Zoom parties for all Helping Ninja youth across the globe! We have Helping Ninjas in Europe and across forty-one states. Connect with other like-minded youth and learn how to help the planet and each other.
I’m supporting BOLD because I saw first hand how dance can bring joy, confidence, and connection to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
By Leo Berry
I believe that we each have a responsibility to help each other. Especially those that can’t always help themselves, or have the means to do so.
Helping individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to experience the therapeutic benefits of ballroom dance is the mission behind Carmel, Indiana non profit: Benefits of Learning Dance Inc (BOLD).
That coupled with volunteer opportunities for youth of all ages to also have a chance to help others aligns with the mission of Helping Ninjas to inspire youth to help others and our planet, and provide opportunities to do so.
BOLD is a Carmel not-for-profit that turns joy into something real, giving the intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) community the chance to learn ballroom dance, build confidence, and connect through movement.
TEENS FOR BOLD volunteering at BOLD
I have teamed up with eight fellow friends and classmates to start a fundraising initiative: TEENS FOR BOLD. Myself, Leo Berry and founder, Remy Hollingsworth along with HC Wang, Ethan Morgel, Benny Winger, Knox Leimer, Brady Bales, and Sergio Aleman.
BOLD FOR TEENS goal is to raise ten thousand dollars by the end of AUGUST 2026. Our team will donate the $10,000 to BOLD and sponsor a table at the BOLD Dance Gala on November 6th.
I’m supporting BOLD because I saw first hand how dance can bring joy, confidence, and connection to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I want to help raise money so more participants can experience the benefits of ballroom dance, therapy, social interaction, and performance opportunities.
BOLD’s founder, Sean Gehlhausen, has the long-term goal of getting ballroom dance officially recognized and state-funded as a therapeutic physical activity, like equestrian riding is for therapy. [1]
Remy Hollingsworth decided to start Teens For Bold to help being inspired upon volunteering at BOLD: “Some of the people closest to me have IDD. The first time we watched a BOLD Dance session, you could just see it on their faces. Pure joy. Like nothing else in the world mattered.”
As classmates and friends we are collectively working together to on a this fundraising initiative: TEENS FOR BOLD.
What is BOLD? Based in Camel, BOLD, Inc. is a registered nonprofit organization that teaches ballroom dance to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and it provides physical and recreational therapy, social interaction, and music engagement.
Instruction in ballroom dance movements and techniques
Engagement in regular opportunities to practice dance through organized social dancing sessionsEngagement in regular opportunities to practice dance through organized social dancing sessions
Performances of choreographed group dance formations at dance workshops and events
Improves the health and wellness of BOLD participants.
Helping Ninjas joins efforts to help. For just $1.00 you can help us help others through BOLD. Purchase the Helping Ninja emoji sticker App now thru the end of May 2026 and all proceeds will be donated to TEEN FOR BOLD fundraiser.
ClicK HereTO BE DIRECTED TO THE APPLE APP Store to purchase Helping Ninja Sticker App and help TEENS FOR BOLD.
HOW YOUR DONATION WILL HELP BOLD:
Opportunities for BOLD participants to perform locally and around the state.
Subsidize the cost of performance attire for BOLD participants and volunteers.
Development and implementation of a volunteer training program focused both on ballroom dance instruction and on providing awareness and understanding of our population.
Development of a therapeutic ballroom dance curriculum designed specifically for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Dance studio rental for group classes, dance parties, new choreography development, and events.
Operational costs such as supplies, technology fees, and insurance costs.
Teens For Bold Goal is to sponsor a table at the 2026 BOLD Dance Celebration!
