FPUD receives award from school district

FALLBROOK — For the second year in a row, the Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) was chosen to receive the Community Cornucopia Award from the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District.

The cornucopia, or horn of plenty, is a symbol of abundance.

FPUD officials accepted the award as thanks for its staff’s devotion to providing elementary school presentations on protecting waterways and keeping the local environment free of sewer spills through the district’s grease can decorating presentation and contest.

FPUD staff members go into Fallbrook classrooms and teach the dangers of pouring cooking oils and grease down the drain.

Cooking grease cools and thickens in the sewer pipes, causing clogs and backups and eventually sewer spills. Schoolchildren help to solve this problem by creating “grease cans” using recycled coffee cans donated by FPUD customers.

Each student makes his own special work of art and then takes the can home to instruct his family on how to use it to solve the problem: keep the decorated can on the kitchen counter, line it with a plastic grocery bag and pour the cooking grease into the bag. When the bag is full, it can simply be thrown into the trash.

Fallbrook elementary students have made 4,000 grease cans since the program began five years ago and district officials have noticed a significant drop in grease-related spills.

FPUD Board President Bert Hayden and Community Relations Representative Noelle Denke attended the ceremony to accept the award.

“This is but a small way to acknowledge your genuine concern for the children of the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District,” wrote Superintendent Janice Schultz in a letter acknowledging the district.