Performing Department
Department of Administration
Non Technical Summary
Current Problem:In Wisconsin, 1.2 billion pounds of food goes to waste annually while 1 in 7 households experience food insecurity. In Milwaukee, 15% of material going to landfills is edible food, according to a 2021 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Waste Characterization Study. The large volume of food waste contributes significantly to Milwaukee's total greenhouse gas emissions. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic brough to light the vulnerabilities of current food supply chains and the uncertainty many faced and continue to face in their food security experiences. During the pandemic, Milwaukee County saw an over 14% increase in the number of FoodShare (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) recipients.Overproduction of food, packaging, and disposable goods results in huge streams of waste that are costly to our environment, health, and economy. Waste collection and disposal demand continues to grow, requiring intensive resources. Once sent to a landfill, organic waste like food scraps decompose to release methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas that is a great contributor to climate change. The FEED MKE Pilot Program will have a positive impact on our environment by strengthening the current food system and investing in a more resilient, local food supply chain that is more accessible to those experiencing food insecurity and chronic diet-related diseases.Approach to Problem:The FEED MKE Pilot Project will address the problem of food waste and increase composting capacity with the following approaches:Conduct outreach and education initiatives to inform the public about how food waste impacts climate change.Provide funding through mini-grants to support capacity-building for community-based organizations and community composting sites.Foster relationship-building between gleaners and food pantries, food kitchens, emergency food banks, restaurants, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and neighborhood associations.Issue a Food Saver Challenge through the Mayor's Office to incentivize private sector food waste reduction practices.With grant funding, ECO will hire a full-time Project Coordinator to coordinate the FEED MKE Coalition, build community relationships, create outreach and education materials, and support project evaluation. Outreach and education initiatives will include the creation of an interactive website and communication toolkits that promote gleaning and composting services to residents and commercial businesses. Marketing efforts will be supported by trusted community partners such as schools, churches, restaurants, grocery stores, and neighborhood associations. Partners with on-site community spaces such as gardens, nearby food banks, and pantries will conduct on-site demonstrations and share resources with the public. Messaging will focus on the needs of key stakeholders and supporting behavioral changes at the local level.ECO will administer mini-grants to community-based organizations like food pantries and farmers markets through a competitive process. The mini-grant award process will be led by a cohort comprised of the program's lead partners: the Mayor's Office, Milwaukee Health Department (MHD), Department of Public Works (DPW), and University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension (UW-Madison Extension). In addition, drop-off compost bins will be distributed to additional community organizations through agreements with the City's Department of Public Works (DPW) at approximately 8 community locations offering weekly collection services over the 2-year life of the grant.The FEED MKE Coalition and other local, food-related agencies will support relationship-building using networking and asset mapping. Partners will be convened for regular meetings and receive timely communication through FEED MKE under the direction of ECO, MHD,DPW, and UW-Madison Extension. Together, the coalition will address legal and policy issues, such as removing barriers to food donation and improving food labeling. FEED MKE will coordinate efforts to capture data from grocery stores, restaurants, institutions, and other large events, like Summerfest or the Wisconsin State Fair, to understand the types of food waste volumes generated and options for redistribution. In addition, FEED MKE will explore locations where the largest amount of edible food can be recovered (farms, farmers markets, community gardens, grocers, institutions, restaurants, etc.), as well as sites where the food can be redistributed within the emergency food system (meal sites, food banks/pantries, soup kitchens, etc.).The Mayor's Office will issue a Food Saver Challenge to Milwaukee food establishments to build community awareness on the issue of food waste. Food Saver Challenges, as replicated from the Nashville, Tennessee model, incentivize private sector food waste reduction practices using positive brand exposure. The initiative will promote participating business using marketing materials distributed through traditional and digital media, outreach through Business Improvement Districts and neighborhood associations, and on a larger-scale with the support of Milwaukee's tourism agency, Visit Milwaukee. To participate, restaurants will be asked to complete a threshold of pre-approved actions. Businesses that take part in the challenge will receive branding support, increased patronage, and potentially composting discounts.Project Impact:According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in the U.S., 40% of food is lost or wasted annually, costing an estimated $218 billion, or 1.3% of GDP. Wisconsin is a large agricultural region of the U.S. The State of Wisconsin's Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has found that agriculture contributes $104.8 billion annually to the state's economy. The state is home to 64,1000 farms and agriculture contributes to about 11.8% of the state's employment. The Business and Sustainable Development Commission found that by 2030, reducing food waste will represent a $155-405 billion economic opportunity. In particular, food waste reduction can help to create jobs. The FEED MKE Pilot Project will support local job creation at community-based organizations through available mini-grant funding available for workforce salaries. It will further support the local composting workforce by increasing demand for services.The USDA provides federal dollars to emergency food providers like food banks, soup kitchens, and food pantries to support individuals experiencing food insecurity. One of the uses of this funding is food purchases. By recovering food through gleaning, local food pantries and kitchens can reduce spending costs on food purchases and reprioritize funding for other needs. The USDA also pays the full cost of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and shares administration costs with operating states. With greater food recovery, individuals can look to community organizations to help supplement SNAP and stretch their dollars further.The cost of not acting on climate change also has major economic impacts. According to the National Climate Assessment, more extremes in precipitation can be expected in addition to more intense storms and extended periods of drought. Milwaukee is already experiencing the impacts of heavier storms and flooding on existing infrastructure. The City reported catastrophic flooding in July 2010 that caused over $30 million in damage to homes and businesses and hundreds of job losses. The Associated Press reported in 2018 that flooding across Wisconsin caused over $208 million in damage. Plus, Risk Factor calculates that 19,413 properties in Milwaukee County are at risk of flooding and that risk will increase in the future. Waste reduction in landfills is one strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The FEED MKE Pilot Project supports the goals of the Milwaukee Climate and Equity Plan to:Reduce community greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050Improve racial and economic equity by creating green jobs that pay at least $40,000 and are focused on recruiting local people of color.The Milwaukee Climate and Equity Plan is aligned with guidance set forth by the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy. The hierarchy prioritizes source reduction, or reducing the amount of food being generated, which is difficult for local governments to address given that food production happens primarily in the private sector and is supported by state and federal policy. The least preferred method of dealing with food waste is sending it to a landfill. Composting is a sustainable alternative to recycle the nutrients from food and is prioritized in this project.Under the Milwaukee Climate and Equity Plan, the city-wide objectives of the Waste Reduction and Sustainable Consumption Big Idea are:Food Recovery: 100 tons of food recovered by 2030.Solid Waste Reduction: Achieve a 25% reduction in solid waste sent to landfills by 2030 by helping build the capacity of composting entities/businesses.Overarching Goals:To reduce food waste at the beginning, middle, and end of the food preparation and consumption cycle.Collect, glean, and prepare edible food material for redistributed consumption to hungry people.Increase participation in composting on an individual, neighborhood, and city-wide basis.Objectives:*By end of Year 2, divert approximately 60,000 pounds (30 tons) of organic waste from landfill through composting at 3-5 community-based organizations.By end of Year 2, divert approximately 200,000 pounds (100 tons) of organic waste from landfill through composting at 8 drop-off composting sites available to the community through DPW.By end of Year 2, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 260 metric tons of carbon dioxide (or ~2MTCO2 saved per short ton of food scraps diverted from landfills to composting).*Objectives for composting were calculated using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery 2016 Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors for food waste based on compost bin volume, number of anticipated locations, and weekly collection rates using the distribution timeline noted over the 2-year grant period.The objective for greenhouse gas emissions reductions was calculated using the EPA's Materials Recovery Greenhouse Gas Calculator for Communities and converting the total of approximately 260,000 pounds (130 tons) of food waste into metric tons of carbon dioxide using source reduction, recycling, and composting relative to landfilling and combustion (MTCO2e/ton).
Project Methods
Through careful data collection and evaluation, the FEED MKE Pilot Project will establish a baseline report of yearlong, city-wide food recovery (in pounds) available to residents experiencing food insecurity that can be used to set realistic targets moving forward. Community-based organizations selected for mini-grant funding will be prioritized as distribution locations for food recovery and be asked to assist with baseline data collection. The FEED MKE Coalition will identify additional community organizations serving residents experiencing food insecurity that can be included during the yearlong data collection period of measuring donated food (in pounds) using scales. Having baseline data on Milwaukee's current food recovery activities will be critical to understand how to further increase capacity and improve data collection efforts.Community-based organizations receiving mini-grant funding will be required to report quarterly quantitative data including edible food recovered (in pounds) and on-site composted organic waste (in pounds). Data will be given to the ECO Project Coordinator for ongoing project evaluation and partner assessment meetings held at the end of Year 1 and during Q2 and Q4. All gleaned food will be weighed using scales and recorded by the community-based organization before being served to individuals experiencing food insecurity. Community-based organizations will also weigh on-site compost collection in pounds weekly using scales and record the data. Funding through mini-grants can go toward community-based organizations' workforce salaries to hire staff for data collection and program monitoring. Awardees of mini-grants will receive training from ECO that includes explicit directions to weigh all recovered food products prior to consumption and on-site composted items. Organizations using a contracted composting service must require the organization to share weekly collection data of the amount of organic waste in pounds and report the data to ECO. As part of services, local composting organizations already weighcollections using a scale and maintain this data for their own records. DPW will weigh all drop-off compost bins during weekly collection at community sites using scales to record the pounds of organic waste diverted from landfill. Data will be reported to the ECO Project Coordinator for ongoing project evaluation and partner assessment meetings.As part of regular grant reporting, Lead Partners, under the direction of the ECO Project Coordinator, will calculate total organic waste diverted from landfill, edible food recovered (for the baseline study), and estimated total greenhouse gas reductions from food waste recovery. Greenhouse gas reductions numbers will be calculated by converting pounds of food waste into metric tons of carbon dioxide using the EPA's Materials Recovery Greenhouse Gas Calculator for Communities. The calculator focuses on source reduction, recycling, and composting relative to landfilling and combustion (MTCO2e/ton). The totals will be compared to the project's objectives to measure success at the end of the grant period. A completed baseline report measuring the current pounds of recovered food over a year in Milwaukee will be shared with 13 the FEED MKE Coalition and inform strategic planning and coordination efforts moving forward.