Working at a bank in New York City in the mid-2010s, Anna Sacks was living the life -- just not the life she wanted. Sure, she was happy. But she wanted to do something that felt important and was fulfilling on a deeper level.
Some people seeking meaning might read a self-help book or perhaps volunteer a few hours a week. Sacks packed up her life and moved to Connecticut for three months to participate in Adamah, a Jewish farming program that focuses on sustainable (可持续的) living and growing sustainable food. She returned to New York with a new purpose and a variety of new skills to make her dreams a reality.
"One of the things that really stuck with me from Adamah, which means 'Earth' in Hebrew, was how they handled the waste they had, primarily through composting (堆肥)," she says. "And I just thought, Why aren't we doing that here?"
The Adamah program opened Sacks' eyes to the damage that consumer culture is doing on a local, national, and global level, and the need to find solutions. So in 2016, she took a master composting
course and started working with a food rescue program, which she named "trash walking."
During walks around her neighborhood, Sacks, 31, picked through garbage to look for reusable items. Soon, her trash walks expanded to include company trash cans along with residential trash. Surprisingly, she discovered a wide range of really great stuff--like clothing, decorations, plates and food.
Sacks' main focus is simply getting people to pay attention to how many unnecessary things they buy and then throw away. "Once you become aware of the way you consume, you can see ways you improve," she says.
