We were lucky to catch up with Ana Maria Quintero recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ana Maria, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business
The craziest story that has happened is the partnership between Laica Worms & Vermicast LLC and the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition (SUAC), a 501 (c)(3) non profit that has provided a platform for me to bring worm farming education to a larger population of all ages, from children to retired seniors. I have volunteered thousands of hours for the past twenty years to multiple organizations and I began volunteering for SUAC five years ago. Overtime, the partnership has grown and currently I hold the position of Secretary in the board because I share their vision to support sustainable and self-sustaining cultivation of healthy food and access to equitable local healthy food through education, advocacy, and connection. Furthermore, part of that sustainable and self-sustaining process is food waste management through worm farming, my specialty.
Proliferation of food waste management through worm farming in the city of St Pete 5 years ago was challenging because most people prefer the comfort of paying for someone else to dispose of their food waste. Where I reside, the City of St Pete picks up all waste mixed together without implementing a food waste management program, only a recycling program. The focus of Laica is to educate individuals on how to manage their food waste and transform it into organic fertilizer for their garden or house plants. Laica also supplies Composting Red Wiggler Worms and Nutrient Rich Organic Fertilizer (Worm Castings/Vermicast). Although the first few years of worm farming reached a large population across the world through social media, the focus of Laica is to make impactful changes at a local level first, then expand at a state level, then national level and beyond. As a result of the partnership with SUAC, Laica has been able to teach waste management through worm farming not only to local gardeners that join SUAC events, but also students from local middle schools, charter schools, and elementary schools as well as members of other associations, clubs, organizations and nonprofits. All of the connections I have created as a member of SUAC have allowed Laica to grow at a pace that I would not be able to do by myself. I encourage you to partner your business with a nonprofit and volunteer in your community.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I graduated with a degree in Geography from the Honors Program at USF. While I attended the school I was the vice president of the garden club and one of my duties as vice president was caring for our worm farm where I became enamored with composting red wiggler worms right away! At the same time that I was caring for the worms I was putting together my honors thesis “The Politics of Organic Food Consumption, Recycling and Solar Power Use” where I did research on waste management and realized that food waste management is a crucial problem that is not being addressed in a sustainable manner in the city I live. Therefore I decided to create Laica Worms & Vermicast LLC with the purpose to use worm farming practices as a way to address food waste challenges. Laica supplies composting Red Wiggler Worms (Eisenia fetida), worm castings (vermicast) rich in nutrients for plants, worm farming education and the service of setting up worm farms of any size. For my clients, I solve their food waste management issues and empower them to transform that food waste into organic fertilizer for their plants. Through a partnership with SUAC I am teaching students of local schools entrepreneurship through worm farming and I also use social media platforms such as youtube, instagram, facebook and buy me a coffee to teach worm farming around the world in Spanish and in English.
My detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) set me apart from others because they are set in place to care for Red Wiggler Worms that are kept outdoors in a tropical environment and battle pests without using any pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals. I have spent the past 8 years doing research in worm farming and learning from experience what type of procedures are needed to ensure long term survival of these composting worms and how to motivate them to reproduce and create new generations of worms. Laica’s SOP has been replicated many times in multiple locations with 100% success.
I am most proud of students from John Hopkins Middle School bringing food and cardboard from their home to feed their worm farms and eventually having them teach younger students how to become worm farmers themselves. The current project I am working on alongside the president of SUAC, Lisa Pineda, is having students of John Hopkins Middle School mentor students from Lakewood Elementary School on how to care for the worm farms we will be putting together through a workshop in the classroom. The students of John Hopkins Middle School will also be putting together worm farms they will offer for sale to raise funds starting the holiday season and onwards. Send an email to [email protected] for inquiries!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I avoided paying for advertisements and built my social media audience organically. I create some informative posts with links to informative articles for people to see Laica’s social media as a source of information. In my case with instagram I had the opportunity to gain followers from across the world that asked me for advice and I provided it without charging a fee because I wanted to keep increasing my followers at an international level and grow my numbers. Unfortunately I traveled to Colombia in South America and had problems logging into my instagram account @laicaworms while I was there which made Instagram delete my account. Yes, I was frustrated for months but moved on and opened a new account, @laicawormss. Fortunately, I had downloaded everything the previous month and I also use other social media platforms where I can fall back on in case I lose an account.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Becoming a volunteer for various local non profits, partnering with them and participating in events that help the community where I have met people that think alike and have similar common goals has been most effective for me. I have encountered the most meaningful networking opportunities there. For me sustainability, equitable healthy food access for everyone and food waste management are important, and the partnership with the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition, UF/IFAS, Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival, Tampa Bay Watch and Deuces Food Forest, among others, has helped me grow my clientele immensely.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Laicaworms
- https://suacstpete.org/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/laicawormss?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaicaWorms/
- https://www.facebook.com/SustainableUrbanAgricultureCoalition/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/anamariaquinterogomez
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@LaicaWorms?si=z7eT18d2FTQ44ChF
- Other: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/honorstheses/238/ https://journals.flvc.org/flgeog/article/view/118175