Fourth Grader Takes on Fast Food to Save Forests

by Margaret Swink · 2011-04-22 12:25:00 UTC
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In second grade, Cole was assigned a project to be an environmental activist. He researched environmental causes around him and found that McDonald’s was buying paper that destroyed endangered forests in his home state.  With the help of Dogwood Alliance, a group that works on forests in the Southeast, Cole met with McDonald’s and asked them to change their ways.

Well, Ronald McDonald couldn’t say no to a second grader. After the meeting (and subsequent negotiations with Dogwood Alliance), Mickey D’s announced an industry leading paper policy, committing them to stop sourcing paper from endangered forests and to start buying FSC-certified instead. (For more on why we FSC is preferable, see my previous post.)

It’s a huge victory for endangered Southern Forests – helping move an industry that has a huge forest footprint. According to Dogwood Alliance, fast food packaging— ¾ of which comes from forests—makes up 20 percent of all litter in the United States. That's a huge impact for paper containers meant to contain a single hamburger or french fries.

Perhaps that’s why Cole wasn’t content to stop his campaign when second grade was over. This year, partnering with Dogwood Alliance once again, he’s taking on the fast food company that purchases the largest amount of Southern forest destruction: Kentucky Fried Chicken.

On March 3, Cole traveled to Louisville, KY from Charlotte to meet with corporate executives at KFC and deliver in person the over 6,000 hand drawn postcards that he had collected from youth across North Carolina, asking KFC to use more recycled paper and to stop buying paper that comes from the South’s endangered coastal forests.

In honor of Earth Day, he’s released a video to tell his story in his own words: KFC and Cole

After watching his video, it’s almost impossible to believe that KFC is still holding out – but they are. Help Cole and Dogwood win the battle to save Southern forests by signing The Dogwood Alliance's petition to KFC posted on Change.org.

And if you want to take one more step:  sign up to deliver a letter to your KFC branch as part of Dogwood Alliance’s National Day of Action on April 27, 2011.

It's easy to forget how much of a difference that one person can make. Here's to Cole, a real Earth Day hero.

Follow Change.org's Environment page on Facebook,  Twitter or RSS. Have a story tip? E-mail us at environmenttips@change.org.

Photo credit: smi23le via Flickr

Margaret Swink writes about forests, climate and why saving rainforests is still just as sexy as you remember it from 1989.

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