Biden Administration Awards RI Food Policy Council $18.7M for Food Waste Project
GoLocalProv News Team
Biden Administration Awards RI Food Policy Council $18.7M for Food Waste Project
According to the announcement, “The From Food Waste to Opportunity: A Path toward Climate, Environmental, & Economic Justice in Rhode Island project will enable a generational investment in the critical area of food waste reduction. More than 40% of unused food is sent to landfills, and about 8% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributed to food waste.”
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In Rhode Island, food waste is the top single material in the state’s waste stream. Over the next three years, RIFPC and its municipal and nonprofit partners will implement a multilevel approach to food waste reduction, donation, and composting in 64 contiguous qualifying census tracts in Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls and 14 in Newport and Middletown. These communities are ideal sites for the project based on the unique strengths of their residents, schools, businesses, nonprofits, and institutions, according to the grant announcement.
“This project grew out of the close collaboration of many partners — community-based organizations, municipalities, composters, and conservation and environmental organizations.” says Diane Lynch, RIFPC Board President, “The resulting project plan will kickstart RI’s food waste reduction in an equitable, efficient and thoughtful way, and the benefits from this generous funding will be felt for many years to come.”
The announcement states:
The From Food Waste to Opportunity: A Path toward Climate, Environmental, & Economic Justice in Rhode Island project will train over 500 people to participate in the circular economy, engage over 300 businesses, schools, and other organizations in excess food donation and food waste composting, create nearly 40 new jobs, provide free compost pickup services for 15,000 households in Environmental Justice communities (using clean electric trucks and bicycles), install over 30 community compost pickup locations and 9 new compost processing facilities ranging in size from small to large. By the end of the three-year grant term, over 11K tons of food waste will be diverted from the landfill, eliminating over 15K tons of CO2 equivalent from the atmosphere.
“Groundwork Rhode Island is thrilled to be part of this transformational effort to reduce wasted food and increase composting in the Ocean State. Our collective efforts will ensure that community-driven solutions to climate change, like our Harvest Cycle composting program, are at the forefront, creating jobs for local residents, building healthy soil to grow food, and keeping this valuable resource in the community where the food scraps were generated to benefit the people who live there,” said Amelia Rose, Executive Director, Groundwork RI.