Douglas County is one of 13 communities in the country to receive the first Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction Grant from the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and has been awarded nearly $90,000 to work on food resource recovery.

Douglas County’s Partnerships for Food Resource Recovery project will primarily fund a two-year Food Waste Reduction Analyst position within the Lawrence-Douglas County Sustainability Office. This position will initially work to expand on a farmer-volunteer gleaning network in Douglas County and collaborate with City of Lawrence to pilot a food waste compost stream for Just Food. The Analyst position will also work toward other food waste reduction strategies laid out in the Douglas County Food System Plan.

This project relies on the collaboration of multiple community partners including, the Lawrence-Douglas County Sustainability Office, City of Lawrence, the Douglas County Food Policy Council, Moon on the Meadow Farm, Just Food, Sunrise Project, the Lawrence Community Shelter, and the KU Center for Environmental Policy.