Here's My Great Green Idea!

The Doe Fund (TDF) is a New York City-based nonprofit whose mission is to develop and implement cost-effective, holistic programs that meet the needs of a diverse population working to break the cycles of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism. All of TDF's programs and innovative business ventures ultimately strive to help homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals achieve permanent self-sufficiency.

TDF is best known for its award-winning Ready, Willing & Able (RWA) work and training program. The most visible component of RWA is the Community Improvement Project, in which participants clean more than 160 miles of city streets daily. In December 2006, TDF launched RWA Resource Recovery, which collects, free of charge, thousands of gallons of used cooking oil weekly from New York City restaurants and other institutions, even the United Nations. The oil is sold for conversion into biodiesel fuel; the proceeds are reinvested back into RWA. This means that more motivated men and women can be offered quality training and work in the burgeoning green economy. It also means that TDF is doing its part to mitigate air pollution, dependence on fossil fuels, and the effects of climate change.

It's estimated that 50 million gallons of used cooking oil are disposed of inappropriately annually in New York City, causing infrastructure problems. Because this waste can be converted into biodiesel fuel, it's also like pouring a “natural" resource down the drain. A clean-burning and renewable energy source, biodiesel fuel can power the diesel engines of city buses and trains, commercial trucks, generators, and home heating systems. Compared to its petroleum counterpart, it emits 78% fewer greenhouse gases and 47% fewer particulates.

The objectives of Resource Recovery are threefold:

To create employment opportunities for formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals;
To reduce the amount of waste cooking oil that clogs the city sewers;
To improve the quality of life in New York City by producing cost-effective, clean-burning fuel.

This innovative program is social entrepreneurship at its best. New York City is cleaner and greener, and the program is operated in part by RWA trainees like Ronald Woodton, who used to be homeless.

It took some time for Ronald to find himself as a champion for a cleaner, greener New York City. He ran away from home when he was twelve, and instead of going to school, he spent his days pick-pocketing and was soon introduced to cocaine and crack. “I started selling first. Then I started using when I was around 19 or 20 years old. When he was finally arrested, a 15-year cycle of incarceration, addiction, and homelessness began.

Between stints behind bars, he was homeless and severely addicted to crack cocaine. “I was getting high a lot. All the money I had been using to buys clothes and stuff . . . all that came to a stop. I shack up with friends, or if they wouldnt let me in, I'd sleep in their hallway. He even slept in a park across from the UN, never thinking he'd one day be picking up used cooking oil from its cafeterias for conversion into a clean-burning alternative fuel.

“I heard about The Doe Fund in prison. After I was locked up the last time, I started educating myself earned my GED. I was ready to change, and The Doe Fund has given me a second chance. God has answered my prayers.

Not only is Ronald getting his own life back together, the work he dedicates himself to every day makes New York City cleaner and greener!