Investing in Solutions

FUNDING AMOUNT

$30,000

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Funding will support hiring a food recovery and cold storage warehouse manager as the organization shifts from a transitional housing model to a greater focus on food recovery.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

Ebenezer Stone Ministries is a food pantry that includes warehousing facilities–focused on more than forty-eight organizations that currently rely on them for food distribution and cold storage support. 

Funding their proposal will allow them to increase the number of organizations they partner with and allow them to take in and distribute hundreds of thousands of additional pounds of food on an annual basis. 

Their goal is to receive and distribute one million pounds of food in 2025.

PROGRAM OFFER

• • The organization is the largest recipient for food banks in SouthEast Wisconsin. 
• • They have a large amount of available cold storage and are looking to provide that support to and collaborate with eother food pantries in the area.

MAILING ADDRESS

P.O. Box 341591 Milwaukee, WI 53234

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected] and [email protected]

http://www.ebenezerstoneministries.org/

FUNDING AMOUNT

$20,000

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Will expand innovative co-op food pantry services to two new locations in ZIP codes 53204 and 53215, doubling the number of families served.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The organization is a food pantry that operates using a cooperative model.  In this model, food pantry clients can elect to become “members” who “assist with ordering, stocking and distributing food” meeting twice a month.  In return, members receive a two-week supply of food twice a month and reap the benefits of getting to know other families in the neighborhood, discussing concerns, and problem-solving on topics such as safety, immigration issues, jobs, and health.

Funding this proposal will increase long-term food security and social cohesion for 125 individuals (40 families) living in the 53204 and 53215 zip codes on the inner southside of Milwaukee. These zip codes are both identified as food deserts, have an average obesity rate of 45%, have a crime grade of “F/D-”, and the highest rates of fatal overdose deaths.

PROGRAM OFFER

• • Interested in partnering with other food recovery organizations and educational programs geared at supporting individuals and families in a whole-person approach. 
• • Would be open to speaking to other organizations who may be considering a co-operative model for their own services or engaging with their individual and family clients, members, and guests more effectively.

MAILING ADDRESS

1414 W. Becher Street, Milwaukee, 53215

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected]

http://www.jluthernhc.com/

$30,000

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

A gleaning organization expanding staff to distribute 1,000 more family meals per week from recovered produce, with additional funding for durable kitchen equipment and supplies.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The organization provides gleaning opportunities, community programming, and meals for food-insecure communities.  Funding their proposal will increase gleaning opportunities; produce more meals for food-insecure communities; and serve as a communication nexus between farms, farmers markets, food pantries, and service agencies, ensuring efficient distribution of surplus produce.

Funding will be used to produce 10-20% more meals from recovered produce; expand hours (from 25-32h/wk in peak season and maintain minimum of 25h/wk year-round); increase number of “Family FarmStand Meals” meals/wk by 10-12% (roughly 85-90 additional families); increase collaborations with local farmers, growers, and orchards; and expand outreach through provision of stipends for farmers in order to add 40 farmers to the annual program.

PROGRAM OFFER

• • The organization is an expert in gleaning and food recovery – and in repurposing surplus produce for fresh and healthy meals.
• • They are able to share important information for those getting started in gleaning and food recovery or offer services to other organizations to coordinate connected efforts.

MAILING ADDRESS

502 E Bradley Rd, Fox Point, WI 53217

[email protected]

http://www.thi-milwaukee.org/

FUNDING AMOUNT

$8,000

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Funding will support hiring two part-time project coordinators and a full-time ServSafe employee to oversee all food preparation on-site.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The organization is a food business (café and restaurant) that works collaboratively with local, grassroots, mutual-aid collectives.  Funding their proposal will provide the opportunuty to assemble an agile food recovery response team to process/preserve large food donations; and preparing brunches and hot meal pop-ups with recovered food.  They will also be able to hire staff to serve as two part-time project coordinators and provide funding for a full-time ServSafe employee to be on site for all prep.

PROGRAM OFFER

• • Interested in connecting with gleaners, growers, cooks, educators, and volunteers.
• • Willing to share information about running a café that is using repurposed and surplus food. 
• • Willing to share details about launching a "pay as you go" model.  Interested in discussing food sovereignty and workshops and interactions with large-scale donors.

MAILING ADDRESS

4424 W. North Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53208

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected]

http://www.tricklebeecafe.org/

FUNDING AMOUNT

$10,000

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Will provide part-time staff and material support to a food pantry operating six days a week for 42 years, offering diverse meal programs year-round.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The organization supports Milwaukee’s hungry and homeless populations.  They were founded in 1982 and provide hot breakfasts and hot dinners, five days a week, at four Milwaukee locations. 

They also provide Saturday lunches and Saturday dinner-to-go bags to cover the gap in local services on the weekends.  The organization offers wrap-around mental health services, provides toiletries and clothes, and offers a limited amount of scholarship-based job training opportunities in partnership with other local organizations. 

Since 2010, they’ve also provided a fresh food program where participants are taught to can and preserve fresh foods for the organization, to be used in future meals to increase nutritional content.  Funding this proposal will allow them to “connect with additional sources for produce, solidify composting for the season, preserve 2,000 pounds of produce,and explore opportunities for expansion.”

PROGRAM OFFER

• • Willing to speak with organizations managing multiple sites about best practices.
• • Experienced in developing (and maintaining) long-term relationships with funders and supporting / affiliated / partner organizations.
• • Using funds to further support preservation programs for managing inconsistent produce from season to season and would welcome partnerships and collaborations on those programs. 
• • Interested in sharing experience with securing matching funding from diverse sources and leveraging cooperative relationships.

MAILING ADDRESS

816 E. Juneau Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53202

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected]

http://www.thegatheringwis.org/

FUNDING AMOUNT

$12,000

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Will provide volunteer stipends and support a faculty-led program to enhance donation processes and improve food recovery outcomes for local food pantries.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The organization  is a private institution of higher education seeking to collaborate with others to design, administer, and analyze a study that will provide meaningful data for food recovery and public health organizations in the greater Milwaukee area. 

Funding their proposal will allow the organization to conduct research into donation patterns and behaviors in order to share findings that would increase “the amount and quality of food donations in Milwaukee – with the goal of minimizing food waste – while providing balanced and reliable nutrition to families experiencing food insecurity in the city.”

PROGRAM OFFER

• • Interested in partnering with food recovery, food bank, food pantry, and donation organizations in the City of Milwaukee.
• • Will be conducting interviews, sharing data, engaging in research collaborations, and providing institutional support.

MAILING ADDRESS

8701 W Watertown Plank Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53226

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected]

http://www.mcw.edu/

FUNDING AMOUNT

$17,500

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Will develop recover Tier-2 produce from local grocers and growers to upcycle into kombucha – including a flavor to commemorate Mayor Cavalier Johnson's Food Saver Challenge.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The organization is a food business (beverage producer) that seeks to recover Tier-2 produce from local and national grocers like Pete’s Produce, Meijer, and Sendik’s, to upcycle it into new kombucha flavors. 

Funding this proposal provides programmatic support, increases production and lowers costs – while serving local food entrepreneurs, and bringing healthy options to food deserts in Milwaukee’s zip codes – aligning with food recovery priorities by reducing waste.   In addition to work on the Tier-2 recovery / upcycling program, hey are also working closely with FEED MKE as one of the pilot-program members for the Food Saver Challenge.

PROGRAM OFFER

• • Interested in collaborations with gleaners, growers, grocers, and any donors who might want to contribute to the Tier-2 recovery program. 
• • Would like to collaborate with other food-waste prevention advocates to develop custom kombucha flavors.
• • Willing to speak to individuals, organizations, classrooms, groups, and other communities about the benefits of kombucha and the ways in which it's a perfect beverage to include in the waste prevention cycle as a healthy option.

MAILING ADDRESS

2018 S. 1st Street Suite 215, Milwaukee, Wi 53207

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected] and [email protected]

http://www.mysoulbrew.com/

FUNDING AMOUNT

$5,000

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Will provide compost drop-off support and equip community members with bokashi compost education and rodent-proof composting supplies.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The organization has observed most Milwaukee community compost bins open with enthusiasm and then close due to shuttered nonprofits, loss of a garden compost champion, contamination with non-sanctioned items (chicken bones, dog waste bags, weeds, large quantities of brush/logs/tomato vines), and rodents.

The inactive bins dwindle, disintegrate, or get taken over by weeds and become a permanent fixture of the urban landscape.  The organization deeply understands the issue and has worked through "many benefits and drawbacks" to keep free self-drop community composting alive in Milwaukee. 

With this FEED grant Kompost Kids will demonstrate and offer free trainings and materials for a very old, but *new to Milwaukee* form of composting: Bokashi. 

Bokashi composting ferments organics very quickly (thus not attractive to rodents and kills weed seeds) which the gardener then trenches the fermented/partially decomposed organics into the soil.

After a month of curing in the trench, that nutrient rich soil is ready for planting. Thus, Bokashi has the potential to address the many pitfalls (rodents, contamination, weeds) that we’ve seen shutter community compost sites across Milwaukee. It can also be done on a small scale – even a person’s backyard.

• • Willing to work with community members  – individuals and families – to help them get started with Bokashi method composting in their own yards and gardens. 
• • Looking to collaborate with other community partners working on small-scale and large-scale composting. 
• • Planning to offer workshops on how to launch Bokashi and how to engage other organizations in volunteer-based compost services.

[email protected]

https://kompostkids.org/

$18,600

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

Will offer community and on-site composting, using innovative methods while educating MPS students and community members.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

Vincent’s On-Site Aerated Static Pile Composting System Project aims to build and maintain a new composting system to complement the current pilot MPS Modeling Composting Program. The new composting system will enable Vincent to independently manage the compostable materials they generate, eliminating the need to rely on a company for disposal.

This project will help meet an underserved urban community's need for accessible composting options by establishing a drop-off site at the school—a much-needed resource in the 53224 and surrounding zip codes including 53223 and 53225.

Currently, community members in these areas lack convenient composting options, particularly for food waste that includes meat and dairy. 

This project aims to fill this gap by providing a safe, accessible, and environmentally responsible way for community members to contribute to and benefit from our composting initiative.”

PROGRAM OFFER

• • The compost site at Vincent will grow to be a community drop-site in an area that is primarily under-utilizing composting services. 
• • The grant lead will offer educational programming that can be mapped to any MPS school site – and the collaborations with the existing structures of the secondary USDA-CFWR grant awarded to MPS in the same funding cycle as FEED MKE ($300,000) will support ongoing compost education and implementation efforts.

MAILING ADDRESS

5225 W. Vliet Street, Milwaukee, WI 53208

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected]

https://schools.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/vincent/

FUNDING AMOUNT

$19,705

GRANT SUMMARY / PURPOSE

The Office of Sustainability will expand its composting efforts with EarthCubes and introduce the Actium Batch Compost Drum for rapid, self-contained innovation.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) seeks to scale on-campus composting programs to increase food waste diversion rate and retain more of the benefits associated with on-site composting.

UWM’s Office of Sustainability (OoS) has managed composting programs since 2013,and currently operates two distinct programs: a contract-based (Compost Crusaders) service for back-of-house dining services, and an on-site operation called “Panther Pails,” allowing opt-incomposting to the campus community.  123,000 pounds of food waste were sent to CompostCrusaders in 2023 while only 8,250 pounds was diverted to on-site composting.

Through waste audits done in 2017 and 2023, we found that UWM’s waste streams still have approximately 25-30% organic waste in buildings with on-site food service. Currently, less than 1% of UWM’s food waste is kept on site for composting. As hauling fees continue to increase and department budgets decrease, UWM needs a sustainable on-site composting operation to efficiently process higher volumes of organics, increase diversion rates, and reduce the reliance on third party haulers.

OoS recently trialed a new, open-source technology called an “Earth Cube.” While this low-cost, self-build module decreased processing time of their on-site composting from 6 months down to 2 months, it has created new labor and safety concerns. These issues would be remedied with the use of a large-scale composting drum system. Specifically, the Actium Batch Compost Drum provides a rapid break-down time of approximately 1 week, and a contained space, allowing for an increase in the total food waste we can collect over time.

Compost generated from UWM’s on-site operation is currently used on campus in community garden beds, campus orchard, and perennial gardens. Increasing our capacity would allow us to serve not only the UWM community better, but also the surrounding 53211 community.

As 59% of the 53211 population are renters, at-home composting options are very limited in the area. Scaling the existing program will provide better access to those in our local area, including approximately 30,000 UWMstudents and staff who live both on and off campus.

• • The team at the UWM Office of Sustainability will be providing support as a community drop-site. 
• • They will offer workshops on the innovative method of composting that they will implement to other composting professionals and partners in the area. 
• • They will also track data and contribute to ongoing case studies with the FEED MKE Coalition and other research partners.

2100 E. Kenwood Blvd. Milwaukee, WI 53211

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected]

https://uwm.edu/sustainability/

The organization will implement 7 Milwaukee Food Scraps Self Drops in the Washington Park, Amani,Harambee and Metcalfe Park neighborhoods, in the 53208, 53210, 53212, 53216, and 53206 zip codes. These zip codes mainly represent Aldermanic Districts 6, 7, and 15.

Utilizing USPS mailing routes, we are planning on reaching out to 18,100 households within these areas. These compost carts will be housed with community organizations including UEC Washington Park,Tikkun Ha-Ir (at All Peoples Church), Tricklebee Cafe, Jewish Community Center, Sherman Phoenix,Alice Garden and Fondy Farmers Market. These organizations are trusted community leaders and have the space to provide an extra compost cart to the community.

Some of these organizations are already partners of Compost Crusader, and although implementing food scraps self drop sites in Milwaukee has long been a goal of theirs, they have further developed their plan and approach through conversations with each of these organizations.

These organizations will be able to utilize compost carts for the inedible food generated from their own food recovery efforts, but they will also make these carts available to the community for them to contribute food scraps from their homes.

This may be some people’s first experience with diverting food scraps, and as such Compost Crusader will also be offering educational workshops on composting at each of these locations to the surrounding communities.

Compost Crusader would be willing to give a 15% discount for the city to continue to maintain both regular services and self-drop composting initiatives for the host sites. They currently have software that will be used to track resident participation, cart volume, contamination, and estimated weight.

Their hope is that in the first year that at least 20 people will utilize each neighborhood cart and as more people in the neighborhood see the compost cart and truck, they will ask questions and more people will get involved in diversion. This will support our goal of creating a culture of sustainability among Milwaukee residents, and make food waste diversion efforts more visible, especially in neighborhoods where these efforts have not been previously available or supported.” 

• • The team at Compost Crusader will serve as an expert service provider to work with all composting mini-grant awardees and to provide options for initiating additional community-drop sites with the Department of Public Works. 
• • They will also offer discounted services to residents within their existing and expanded service areas and continue to support food-based businesses and food recovery orgnizations working on the scope of the grant.

2520 S 5th St, Milwaukee, WI 53207

EMAIL + WEB CONTACT

[email protected] and [email protected]

https://www.compostcrusader.com/