Organizations, schools and businesses in central Ohio are working together to reduce food waste through prevention, donation, and composting projects. In the 2024 Action Plan Update, you’ll find updates on the activities those partners have been working on over the last 5 years as well as learn about some of the big opportunities for the years ahead.
Since the first publication of the Plan in 2019, some of the most notable highlights include:
- SaveMoreThanFood.org launched becoming a local resource for information on food waste reduction, donation and composting.
- Food rescue organizations have expanded their impact multiple fold over the last few years. Grants have enabled organizations like Columbus Food Rescue and Rescuing Leftover Cuisine to increase their number of donors and volunteers and collectively to redistribute over 7.5 million tons of food.
- Columbus Food Rescue launched Ro’s Kitchen, considered a “transform” kitchen, where produce that will otherwise go bad is transformed into cooked meals for people unable to prepare meals for themselves.
- Eleven (11) communities started Food Waste Drop Off programs. Today, there are a total of 23 sites in Franklin County where residents can drop off food scraps. Columbus plans to have 50 drop-off sites by 2030!
- Following a curbside food waste collection program pilot in 2022, the City of Upper Arlington now offers the program to every city resident.
Click here to explore the plan update.
Are you doing something that’s not captured in the Plan Update? Let us know!
Email foodwaste@swaco.org so that we can document those efforts and share them with others. Spread the news with others, see and share our posts on IG @SWACO_Green or @SWACO.org on Facebook.
