Use Food Scraps

On April 27th from 6 - 10 pm, Rise and Shine will hold its annual fundraiser Motown Memories.  It is a wonderful event and a lot of fun.  Last year, many members of the group Moving to Conservers enjoyed the event. As many events do, disposable plates and such were used to serve 175 meals.  Members of Conservers approached the planning committee and asked if we could help plan next years event with a goal to make it a zero-waste event.  They said yes! The first planning meeting was held this week and the planning paperwork had been updated to include the zero-waste goal!  Fantastic. We are having a lot of fun trying to figure out how to accomplish the goal.  If you have ideas or experience in making events zero-waste we would greatly appreciate learning from you.  You can email me at [email protected] anytime. One of the easiest ways to support those working towards zero-waste is by voting with your dollars and/or time.  If you want to [...]

The Use Food Scraps Symposium is being held March 28, 29 & 30th. Day 3 will include education and entrepreneur support labs at Just Ripe Farms. Details are as follows: March 30, 2019 at Just Ripe Farm Education & Entrepreneur Support Labs 10 am – Noon Learn from community experts on how to divert food scraps via a variety of classes. Noon – 2 pm Community Conversation on next steps. Join us for a zero-waste potluck & community conversation. Bring a dish to share and a non-disposable place setting and beverage. 2 pm - 4 pm Learn from community experts on how to divert food scraps via a variety of classes. Participate in creating public art with Pisgah Collective & others... 4 pm – 5 pm Entrepreneur Support Labs. Let’s find out how we can support solutions & those interested in providing them! The Food Scrap Symposium is a series of community gatherings of study, conversation and local action on March 28, 29 & 30, 2019. Made possible [...]

Planning is under way for the Use Food Scraps Symposium being held March 28, 29 & 30th. Day 2 will include a movie night at Oskar Blues Taproom. Draft details are as follows: Friday March 29, 2019 Anthony Bourdain's Wasted! The story of food waste. 5 – 7 pm Meet community members & entrepreneurs working towards a solution 7 – 8:30 pm Movie Use Food Scraps Symposium A 3 day event bringing the community together for study, discussion and action towards keeping food out of our landfill. The Food Scrap Symposium is a series of community gatherings of study, conversation and local action on March 28, 29 & 30, 2019. Made possible by the following community members: Moving to Conservers, Just Ripe Farms, Oskar Blues Brewery, Transylvania County Solid Waste Authority, & The Hunger Coalition of Transylvania County. Visit UseFoodScraps.com for details

 The Food Scrap Symposium is a series of community gatherings of study, conversation and local action on March 28, 29 & 30, 2019. Made possible by the following community members: Moving to Conservers, Just Ripe Farms, Oskar Blues Brewery, Transylvania County Solid Waste Authority, & The Hunger Coalition of Transylvania County. The mission of the Use Food Scraps Symposium is to connect food scrap producers with those who can use food scraps and identify associated entrepreneurial opportunities. Food scraps are a resource many in our community can use to feed livestock and produce soil.  Currently there are few opportunities for producers and consumers of food scraps to connect.  Our goal is to help foster those connections. All are welcome to be a part of the event.  We look forward to learning and taking action together.

Thanks Susan for sharing your story of your visit! Visit to Vermont Composting - August 23 Karl Hammer, owner of Vermont Composting, Montpelier VT, toured me around the 25 year old facility. It was a great education and the best conversation I’ve had in a long time. My reason to visit: Moving to Conserver interest in developing compost options, including a small commercial facility) Highlights noted … The farm sits on a hill, at the edge of Montpelier. As homes moved closer, VC has accommodated urban neighbors with contracts re smell/noise, a pro-active step. When food scraps arrive, chickens are FIRST handlers, about 1000 of them of all ages, free range and housed in 16x24 nested, moveable sheds. Benefits - immediate treatment of bugs, smelly garbage, reveals inadvertent trash. There is no grain added to diet. Eggs are a staff benefit and for sale - a significant income line. They are protected by mules and electric fence. Processing into defined products occurs as named piles are mixed and [...]

On October 11th, over 20 local citizens gathered to talk about our progress towards diverting food scraps from the landfill and ways to divert more.  We heard about obstacles facing local restaurants that need removed so that they can send their food scraps to places where they can be used to make soil and feed livestock.  We heard about a local bicycle compost pick-up service starting in Brevard in January and we heard what citizens are doing in their own yards and their use of local drop-off sites. We talked about how we can support business owners who are interested in creating local, high-quality compost for the community and we offered our help to turn piles at local drop off locations. It was a fantastic gathering.  The conversation was dynamic and far too short.  This was a focus group of sorts for us and helped us identify issues we need to address in the community compost symposium we are organizing.  Now we will move forward to plan a [...]