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​​​ Project REDUCE 

Restaurants Eliminating & Diverting Uneaten food through Compos​ting & Education​

Project REDUCE Food Waste Prevention Microgrant​

 Applications are now closed. ​​

The Office of Environmental Programs is excited to announce the next phase of its Project REDUCE initiative. For Phase 2, the City is issuing a new microgrant program to support local restaurants in piloting simple, convenient, and innovative food waste prevention solutions.  ​

NOTE:  Restaurants must be located within the City’s Downtown Core boundaries, which is Fillmore Street south to Pacific Railroad; Seventh Street west to Third Avenue. Restaurants within a quarter mile of those boundaries may be considered.

If you have any questions, please contact Kailey Mullis at kailey.mullis@phoenix.gov or 602-534-2488.​​

​Project REDUCE Phase 1

Previously, the City worked with nine restaurants and four key partners to comprehensively eliminate food waste through prevention, rescue, and composting measures through a 10-week program. The goal was to stop food from ending up in landfills by helping restaurants prevent waste, donate surplus food, and compost scraps.​ 

Over the course of the pilot, the participating restaurants located on Roosevelt Row and Historic Grand Avenue diverted 31,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill!

 Watch the documentary below to learn more about Project REDUCE!

​​Participating​ Restaurants from Phase 1

  ​ Arizona Wilderness​ | Chilte Egyptian

Earth Plant Based Cuisine​ 

 The Fair Trade Cafe​ | Gogi Berry Cafe

Irma's Kitchen​ | La Estacion Mexican

Snooze Eatery | Testal Mexican Kitchen​

​​Preventing Waste

​Adopting prevention practices is the most effective way to reduce food waste. It saves restaurants resources and time, as well as money.

Project REDUCE Phase 1 restaurants adopted at least two prevention strategies for the duration of the challenge. Some of these strategies include:

• Adopting new practices for food purchasing, storage, and right-sizing
  cooking quantities to ​minimize waste

• Utilizing foods that might otherwise go unused (like imperfect fruits and vegetables, unusual plant parts, surplus foods) and taking nose-to-tail approaches with animal products; creating new or modified recipes.​​​​

• Offering more flexible portions (like smaller portions, half-size options, etc.).

• Cooking in small batches and/or cook to order.
  

• Making side dishes and bread optional.

• Training on food waste reduction and recognition for practices that reduce food waste.​

Restaurant​s met with local chef Chris Lenza, National Executive Chef of the Cafe Bon Appetit Wellness Team, to receive hands-on guidance and training on food waste prevention strategies that are specific to each restaurant's unique needs.

​Donating Surplus Food

​​​​Participating restaurants utilized Waste Not's free MealConnect app to donate surplus food throughout the eight week pilot. Restaurants used MealConnect to pair food donations with volunteer drivers and a recipient agency. For more information on signing up for MealConnect, please visit mealconnect.org/donate​.​

​Composting Fo​od Scraps

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Each restaurant was provided with free compost collection services from Reycled City for the full 10-week challenge period. 

For restaurants that were interested, the City of Phoenix conducted waste audits and provided information about how much waste are they generated and diverted at the beginning and end of the pilot to track progress.​

​​​​​​A special thank you to our program partners:​