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 fairbanks soil and water…

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 fairbanks soil and water conservation district (fswcd) will improve and expand existing food waste reduction and diversion practices by completing three goals. The first goal states that fswcd will implement new food waste reduction and diversion practices to expand fairbanks' existing food recovery system with respect to the EPA's wasted food scale. The environmental protection agency EPA created the scale to illustrate the most preferred food waste reduction and diversion pathways based on each pathway's potential environmental impacts. The scale lists food waste prevention as the most desirable pathway. The project director will host workshops focused on reducing food waste and distribute educational materials at multiple outreach events. The project director will track the number of individuals educated on food waste reduction counted as workshop attendees and people who receive educational materials. The second tier of the wasted food scale is to donate or upcycle food fit for human consumption to underserved members of the community. Our partnership with the fairbanks community food bank (fcfb) will address this tier. Fcfb will handle all pre-consumer collection and fswcd will collect what is not fit for human consumption for compost. The project director will measure the food waste collected from fcfb in pounds of food waste. Additionally fswcd will pick up food bank donations in conjunction with our curbside food waste collection. This will be reported through pounds of food recovered for human consumption. The third pathway on the waste food scale is to feed animals with food waste. Fswcd identified freezer-burnt but otherwise high-quality meat as a notable GAP in the existing food recovery structure. Many alaskans participate in hunting and fishing which produces scraps in the processing phase and usually freezer-burnt meat in the next few years. Often households have some fish or meat remaining from last year's harvest as they empty the freezer to create space for their fresh catch. Regulations prevent fcfb from accepting this kind of donation as they are not processed in a DEC-approved kitchen. Fswcd will partner with waste me naught (WMN) to host a food-safe collection site for frozen meat and fish to use as supplemental sled DOG food for DOG mushers. This will establish a permanent free drop-off location for anyone in the community to bring old freezer-burnt or scrap meat in chest freezers for mushers to collect at their convenience. WMN staff will be on- site to monitor and will track how many pounds of food waste is used for animal feed. The final wasted food scale tier addressed by this project recommends composting. This project aims to find a solution that can translate to rural native villages so food waste at this tier will be composted. Fswcd will implement 3 food waste collection methods and install an intermodal earth flow composting system to divert food waste from landfills and generatecompost. Fswcd staff will evaluate public acceptance of the 3 collection methods and make changes to ensure project sustainability. Fswcd will offer a curbside food waste collection option for a low price. Staff will provide buckets to all households enrolled in the collection service and collect the food waste weekly to be composted. This collection method will be evaluated by the number of residential participants in the municipal collection of food scraps. Our partner organization golden heart waste management (ghwm) will offer commercial and large-scale collection services. The project director will work with another project partner green star of interior alaska (gsia) to establish a free community drop-off location for individuals to bring food waste for compost. IT is important to maintain equity and accessibility by offering a cost- free option in a central location. The amount of food waste accrued from all 3 collection methods will be weighed and tracked as the amount of food waste used for composting. The collected food waste will be transported to the compost system. The system is built into a 40-foot-long shipping container and contains an auger temperature probe aeration system and other features. The enclosed system allows a loader operator to load a mixture of food waste and local waste sawdust into the system. Over 14 days the system shreds and turns the feedstocks with the auger ensures the compost maintains adequate oxygen levels with an aeration system and monitors the temperature. After 2 weeks the operator removes the compost from the other end and pile to cure. At this point the compost has completed the active or thermal phase and still must cure in a pile for one to two months. However there is no additional labor required. The earth flow system prevents odor and minimizes the amount of labor needed to process the food waste and create high-quality compost. The minimal associated labor costs will allow the system to continue sustainably without further federal funding. This also makes IT a desirable option for rural communities with limited resources. The system can process up to one ton of food waste daily and create high- quality finished compost within three months a perfect time frame for interior alaska's short summer season. Project staff will conduct small-scale winter trials to test the true temperature threshold of the system to determine closing dates for future seasons. Productivity will be evaluated by measuring how many pounds of compost are produced. The finished compost will be sold in small and bulk quantities and tracked by the amount sold. Staff will ensure agricultural producers have access to the finished compost and assistance with application to reduce fertilizer use and improve soil quality. Staff will collaborate with the food bank to create a cost-break program for agricultural producers. Anyone who donates fresh grown produce to the food is medicine program will receivea compost coupon. The fswcd soil specialist will also be available to assist producers with compost and fertilizer use recommendations to explain how to use compost to benefit soil health and reduce fertilizer costs. Fswcd will donate compost to local community gardens that donate a percentage of their harvest to the food bank. This will be evaluated by counting the number of producers receiving compost. Fswcd will continue their backyard composting program in which anyone in the community can attend a free composting workshop and receive their choice of composter. Progress will be evaluated by the number of households who receive a composter. This project will create a zero-waste-oriented cooperative of businesses groups and organizations to share ideas and resources. Each existing entity occupies a certain niche in the local food system which allows and encourages collaboration to reduce recover and recycle the maximum amount of food waste. This will encourage waste management business development by using grant funds to cover one-time costs of capacity- building resources. The project director and relevant project partners will host interested tribal leaders and business leaders for tours of the functioning intermodal earth flow system and share winter operation data to investigate if IT could be a good fit. Fswcd staff along with green mountain technologies staff will assist with funding research and transport logistics to expand composting across more rural areas of interior alaska. This effort will be tracked by the number of leaders we host for tours and meetings in addition to narrative-style reporting on any progress with installing additional systems. Fswcd will provide technical support to interested parties to assist them in establishing additional compost systems. The project director will assess any progress at these satellite facilities by measuring the amount of compost produced by weight.