Earth Day may not be until April 22, but that’s not stopping one local restaurant from celebrating throughout the month.

Martin’s at Midtown is partnering with the Warren County Extension Office to present a series of Friday Lunch and Learn seminars designed to educate people on how to do their share for the planet.

Martin’s owner Lisa Martin said MSU Extension Agent Anna McCain approached her after she found out about the Martins’ interest in composting.

“We’re green people,” Martin said. “We recycle cardboard, we’ve switched to cans because we can’t recycle glass, we compost, we recycle plastic and we recycle paper.”

Martin’s sends out one residential garbage can twice a week for pickup, an unusually small amount of trash for a restaurant.

“We’ve had this incredible compost bin built,” Martin said. “The guys in the kitchen have a screen they pull up, it opens the lid, they put it in there, they close it back up and we have worms down there that eat up everything in it and turn it into incredible compost that we use in the flower boxes where we have arugula and Swiss chard. We usually have something growing over there.”

Martin advised anyone can compost using materials he or she already has at home.

“Composting is easy, all you have to have is a garbage can,” she said. “You can take any kind of leaves, put them in a black garbage bag, stick them in a corner of your yard, and in a month in Mississippi you have fantastic dirt.”

Martin said the Lunch and Learn series is their way of giving back to celebrate Earth Day.

“We’ve always wanted to do something for Earth Day,” she said. “Earth Day is the day we’re going to do bees.”

Other than bees, presentations will also be given on composting and urban gardening. The Lunch and Learn sessions will be held April 8, 15 and 22.

The sessions will be held outside, and in the event of rain, a Friday will be made up April 29.

“You can come in and bring your lunch and we’ll have tea and water out there, or we’ll have lunches already made up so everybody can just sit down there and listen,” she said.

Martin’s will offer chicken salad, tuna salad or ham sandwiches and chips for $7.

For more information, contact Lisa Martin at 601-636-2353.