With the Support of the Embassy of the United States of America, the Institut franco-américain is focusing on the environment during the 2024-2025 cultural season. Our annual Halloween for Kids event seemed like an opportune time to highlight this important project for our younger members and friends. So what exactly has IFA done to be « greener » this Halloween?

• Our crafts activities have been designed around reusing and recycling items we already had or were able to easily get from our members and volunteers. Nothing new was purchased for these activities.
• One of the books read during our Spooky Story Time, The Green Fingered Witch, focuses on a young witch whose magic power is growing her own fruits and vegetables.
• Instead of distributing individual treats wrapped in plastic, our team and volunteers have carefully packed recycled and compostable food-safe treat bags with candy purchased in bulk that came in recyclable packaging.
• One « treat » this year, packaged separately in a recycled and compostable bag, is a seed bomb that is being distributed with instructions about how to toss it into nature so that non-toxic plants can grow from it. The bag has been closed using a Japanese stapler — so without metal staples.
• Another « treat » is a paper bookmark for children to color. It too can be recycled when the time comes.
• Our Halloween games have all been recycled from previous years.
• Anything printed on paper for this event was done using 70g paper. Just using this slightly less weighty paper than standard fare is better for the environment. Easy peasy!
• We’ve encouraged all our participants to join us in going green for Halloween by wearing something green, dressing up in a recycled costume, or using the environment as inspiration for their costume.