title
CC - CONSENT ITEM: Approval of an Application for Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) Cooperative Agreement through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in an Amount Not to Exceed $400,000.
body
Meeting Date: August 26, 2024
Contact Person/Dept: Wallis Nash/Public Works
Phone Number: (310) 253-6445
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Attachments: Yes [] No [X]
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (08/21/2024)
Department Approval: Yanni Demitri, Director of Public Works/City Engineer (08/08/2024)
_____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council approve an application for Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in an amount not to exceed $400,000.
BACKGROUND
In the United States, up to one-third of edible food is wasted. Discarded food can be reclaimed and create opportunities for food security, economic growth, and environmental prosperity. USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) is working with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to make local food systems more resilient on two fronts by reducing and redirecting food waste from landfills to nutrient rich compost for area farms and offering funding for cooperative agreements to encourage robust partnerships with multiple organizations to broaden the scope of activities, garner support for CFWR programs, and increase long-term sustainability.
CFWR projects encourage innovative, scalable waste management plans that reduce and divert food waste from landfills. Cooperative agreement funding is awarded through a competitive process. The funding assists local governments and districts, tribes, and schools with projects that develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost operations and food waste reduction plans. Each grant recipient will receive between $75,000 and $400,000. The total funding for this program is $7.8 million. This grant requires a 25% local match.
DISCUSSION
The City of Culver City’s Environmental Programs and Operations (EPO) Division of Public Works seeks approval to apply for the USDA CFWR cooperative agreement program to address gaps in the Senate Bill (SB) 1383 organic recycling roll-out primarily for multi-family buildings. Many multi-family buildings throughout the City were built when there was only one waste stream (trash), do not have space for three stream containers, and are not easily serviceable by EPO sanitation staff. As such, each of these buildings will need to be assessed individually to determine how to create space for these containers. The cooperative agreement partnership allows a third-party servicer such as LA Compost to manage organic bins and provide compost in a way that City staff is not operationally able to do so.
The grant application proposes that community organics bins be installed in areas convenient to the locations lacking organics service to encourage maximum participation. The bins would be locked and only able to be opened with codes to mitigate contamination and prevent the attraction of vermin. Community members will receive the codes to these bins for their use. These bins are also proposed to be installed in parks.
The City will collect deposits into the organics bin multiple times per week and take them to a central composting location. This composting will likely be completed via an in-vessel closed system. This will allow the food scraps from the community organics bins to be composted within City limits and will reduce trucking. Additionally, the compost from these composters will be made available to community members.
The USDA funds will be used to procure community bins, in-vessel composter, and to cover the partner organization’s costs to operate this program on a short-term (2 year) basis, after which the City can examine the success of the program and adjust the operations as necessary.
Similar community composting programs addressing the gaps in the SB 1383 organics service are offered in Long Beach and Los Angeles.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
There is no fiscal impact to approving the grant application. If the City is awarded the grant, the City will be responsible for a 25% match up to $100,000 depending on the amount of the award. The grant program allows for non-federal funds to be used as the match. Staff has identified sufficient funding for the match from an existing SB 1383 CalRecycle grant awarded to the City in February 2024. If the City is awarded the CFWR grant staff will return to the City Council to accept the grant and amend the budget to incorporate the grant funds and the allocation of the matching funds.
ATTACHMENTS
None.
MOTIONS
That the City Council:
1. Approve an application for the Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) Cooperative Agreement through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in an amount not to exceed $400,000; and,
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.