Minneapolis is stepping up its game in the battle against food waste, recently with the Homegrown team representing at the ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit in Seattle.
With financial backing from a USDA Compost and Food Waste Reduction grant, it seems the city's drive to trim down waste is seeing some serious kitchen action, according to Homegrown's dispatch in Homegrown News, the city is poised to roll out new programs to help local restaurants keep their leftovers out to pasture, and they're not just talking compost – the aim here is preventing food waste before it starts.
Building these initiatives isn't a lonely road – Minneapolis is bringing partners into the mix like Healthy Roots Institute and North Star Sustainability, and they've got their eyes on the prize, with insights and contacts from the summit to make it all happen, as stated on the City of Minneapolis website.
Checking into local food council antics, Homegrown Minneapolis Food Council's got its hands full too, they're wielding more than just gavels and documents, their meet-and-greets come with a side of snacks; think a food theme that cools you off when the heat’s climbing, caprese and chia seed pudding on the menu.
Meanwhile, places like The Sanneh Foundation are landing grants like they're growing on trees, spotlighting the work with The Black Radish Urban Farm to bolster local, sustainable produce for Minneapolis’s food distribution efforts, according to a KSTP interview.
And the summer's just heating up with a slew of community-driven food-centric workshops and classes, Appetite for Change leading the charge with cooking workshops, while Minneapolis Edible Boulevards takes a dive into a cultural cooking experience featuring instructor Ismael Popoca Aguilar.
Shift your gaze towards the governmental horizon, and you'll spot the Minneapolis Health Department fixing to unfurl its Urban Farm and Garden Community Ownership Program RFP, a move that might just give local green spaces and food producers a leg-up in securing their patches of earth for the long haul.
The city is also beckoning vendors to get in line for its master contracts – a golden ticket for those looking to provide a slew of services, from climate and environmental work to public health workforce development, as outlined on the Minneapolis Health Department website.
Seems like there's no rest for the wicked, or in this case, the wickedly hard-working folks of the Minneapolis food scene, the Stop Food Waste Challenge slated for August is bound to keep them on their toes, making kitchen strategies smarter and bellies fuller, one saved morsel at a time.
