Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the city of cincinnati is launching…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the city of cincinnati is launching the cincinnati food waste reduction and composting project (CFWRCP) to divert food waste from landfills and create compost. This will be achieved through a comprehensive approach that prevents food waste at the source, supports local food rescue and transformation, and creates compost infrastructure and food waste drop-off sites across the city.according to the 2018 city of cincinnati waste characterization study, 16.8% of residential waste that ends up in the landfill is food waste while simultaneously 24.7% of cincinnati residents live in poverty and 33% of families suffer from food insecurity. The CFWRCP will engage residents, community stakeholders, community gardens, agriculture sites, existing compost businesses and non-profit partners to achieve its goals and objectives, and many people will benefit from the project's activities. CFWRCP will be implemented in cincinnati with the help of local community partners, such as LA soupe and society of ST. Andrew who, like other project partners, play pivotal roles in the program, from rescuing wasted food and transforming IT into delicious meals, to gleaning vegetables from farmers' fields. Both organizations serve J40 low-income community members and organizations, creating equitable, healthy food access.as the region's capacity for urban food production continues to grow through efforts such as the city's urban agriculture program, various community gardens and local agriculture-related businesses, there is a need to produce high quality compost for growers. The CFWRCP is designed to create compost for local end-users and will create at least 40 small-scale, neighborhood-centric composting sites, in addition to improvements at exiting medium-scale sites. The city also plans to pilot several food waste collection programs in four neighborhoods and share the completed compost product with local agriculture. Using the pilot to inform future organics diversion planning, IT will also providecost savings and enablegreater equity within the urban agriculture community, as well as provide opportunity for potential work force development. The CFWRCP supports the city's 2023 green cincinnati plan (GCP), which aims to make cincinnati a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable community, and works to achieve GCP goals related to increased food access, zero waste, increased efficiency of the food system, minimizing environmental impacts through prevention, education, reuse/recovery, recycling and best practices for surplus food and installing small-scale community composting under 500 square feet,.