RIVER FALLS — President of the River Falls Business Leaders and recent River Falls City Council electee Melissa “Mei Mei” Abdouch has long focused on sustainable business practices, a message she has looked to spread throughout the community.

Abdouch’s popular stop, Mei Mei’s Cookies and Creamery, is filled with furniture from antique and thrift stores, uses real cups, bowls and plates to reduce waste and comes away with little waste for the landfill.

Abdouch partners with Sunnyside Farm in River Falls, receiving all of its eggs as well as vegetables during the harvest. In return, Mei Mei’s gives scraps including egg shells, onion tops and more to the farm which are then fed to the livestock rather than going to waste.

“It goes in a bucket, and then they feed it to their chickens, their cows and put it into compost,” Abdouch said. “A lot of my containers are compostable, even my plastic bags are compostable bags. I create less than one bag of garbage a day even on my busiest day.”

At the shop, Abdouch collects batteries, phones, eyeglasses, ink cartridges and hearing aids to be recycled or repurposed. Buying new is something Abdouch tries to avoid when possible, and repurposing is one of the options that makes it possible.

“I just talk about general responsibility as a business owner to the community. As president of River Falls Business Leaders, we talk about those sorts of things all the time, of what is our responsibility to the community. Being kind to the Earth is all part of that,” Abdouch said.

When Abdouch teaches cookie classes with students of a variety of ages in the shop, one of the largest emphases is what it means to be a responsible business leader. A focus on sustainability has long existed in River Falls, and Abdouch wants to be part of the reason the city remains beautiful.

“People like to live here for a long, long, long time, even after I’m gone,” Abdouch said. “So, I’m just trying to make it a better place than when I got here.”

Between the Kinnickinnic River, the trees, the parks and the trails in the city, Abdouch said it is no secret why so many people care about sustainability and conservation in the city.

“It’s filled with good, thoughtful people. When we have such a beautiful natural resource like the Kinni, it just generates that interest and desire to keep things like that,” Abdouch said. “Not every place gets a Kinnickinnic River to come through that offers a Class A trout stream, kayaking and all of those beautiful things that we have literally in our backyard. When you have that small community that really has that big focus, it just really generates a lot of, okay what steps are we doing to maintain these sorts of things.”

Abdouch will be present at UWRF’s Earth Fest, using squash that was cooked and frozen from an Earth Fest class to create a squash pasta bake and hand out free samples.

Mei Mei’s Cookies and Creamery is located at 113 E. Elm St., River Falls.