Resources for agricultural advisors, community-based organizations & other stakeholders
You play an important role in advancing rural and small-town food scrap composting!
This includes:
Promoting the importance of diverting food scraps from landfills
Identifying interested farmers and community groups
Identifying sources for feedstocks (especially carbon!)
Providing resources and training to all involved
The goal
Create projects that thrive, even after the supporting organization steps away.
This requires careful planning, community involvement, and a long-term perspective.
Get started!
Project planning
Develop a clear project vision & goals
Big or small, start by setting goals and mapping out a plan
Clearly articulate what you want your project to achieve, including actionable steps and the type of groups you want to engage.
Ensure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART goals). Build on these SMART goals by ensuring your goals are inclusive and equitable in this exercise (SMARTIE goals).
Identify Organizational Partners
Step 1:
Be clear about the expertise and capacity you have within your organization. This will help you think of specific roles you need to fill to make your project a success.
For example, your organization’s community network might run deep, but maybe you need some expertise on how to compost. Or maybe you know all about composting but need help getting into the farming community.
Start by thinking about the types of partners you need. Use the Mapping Organizational Partners template to give this brainstorming activity some structure.
Step 2:
Once you know the kind of expertise you’re looking for - identify individuals, groups, or organizations who might also be interested in community-oriented on-farm food scrap composting.
Here are some ways to identify Organization Partners - or folks who will help administer the project:
Talk about your project with people already in your network
Describe the kind of expertise you think you need to make the project a success
Ask for their input
Ask for introductions
Attend community events, such as farmers’ markets or food festivals, and talk to folks about community-oriented on-farm composting.
Need to stretch further?
Do some online research to find like-minded organizations, professional associations and individuals
Figure out which municipal, state or federal agencies in your area also work on organics management and farming
Need funding? Look for foundations, corporations, and other funding sources that support food system projects.
Step 3:
Once you’ve identified some potential Organization Partners, take some time to clearly identify how you think they can help your project succeed - and also what they might get from participating. A relationship-based approach leads to longer-term sustainability of shared work. Take the time to get to know your partners, understand their contexts, and think of these relationships as reciprocal. They’ll be more engaged in helping you with your project if it overlaps with work they’re already engaged in or if it aligns with their values and missions.
Some potential partners:
Solid waste managers and local recycling task forces
Farm organizations and advisors
Community members
Farm-to-School Networks
Composting and environmental organizations
Regional Planning Commissions and Conservation Commissions
Local Boards of Health
State environmental and agricultural agency representatives
Town leadership
Master Composters
Organics haulers
Rural associations
Project Steering Committees
Establishing a project steering committee is a great way to bring in experts who can provide project input on any number of topics.
It’s also a way to expand your network, get assistance in developing discrete pieces of work, and promote your project.
Members of a Steering Committee might include university Extension, agricultural and natural resource regulators, municipal leaders, community members, solid waste managers, or conservation district - just to name a few!
Before you begin, understand opportunities & constraints
Mapping the terrain of existing efforts and attitudes can help you visualize important constraints and opportunities, making for a stronger project design.
What are your state and local rules and regulations for managing organic materials, including food scraps, food residuals, and manures? This will likely involve your agency of agriculture, agency of natural resources (which often governs “solid waste”), land use rules, town zoning, local ordinances, and more.
What kinds of composting and food scrap diversion activities are already happening in your community?
What does your community think about food scrap composting? This includes identifying perceived obstacles and issues, gaps in technical skills and access to resources, and how receptive community members might be to collecting their food scraps.
For an example of some of the different regulatory pieces to consider - check out this Guide for Vermont!
Identifying farmer partners
Building relationships supports sustainability
All of the same techniques used for identifying organizational partners (see above) can be used for identifying farmer partners:
Network through your organizational partners and your broader community
Attend community events where farmers will be
Do some online research if needed
Once you know of some possible farmer partners - it’s important to make sure your project is a good fit for them in order for the composting program you help set up to be sustainable after the project is over.
Partner agreements are one way to make transparent the specific support you’ll provide and the expectations of everyone involved.
Using a Composting Assessment can help you understand the farmers’ needs and interests and get an overview of the current farming practices and existing community connections. This exercise is also an opportunity to identify what they see as specific challenges, problems, or opportunities that might come with the project.
Take the time to ask about the vision and mission of their farming enterprise and how they see a community-oriented composting program supporting their larger goals.
Discuss relevant regulations (see above) to ensure the compost site will be set up for long-term success.
Community-oriented composting can be set up in many different ways. Taking the time to customize both the compost system and the community food scrap collection system helps ensure success.
Fill out the Farm Composting Assessment with your farmer partners - engaging in dialog will help you get to know them and build relationships.
Motivational interviewing as a way to increase participation & ownership
Motivational interviewing is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It's designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person's own reasons for change and establishing a collaborative and respectful relationship.
Motivational interviewing stimulates intrinsic motivation and enhances an individual's commitment to adopting a new behavior (like food scrap diversion and composting). This approach helps uncover potential partners' inherent motivations, strengths, and assets, leading to more meaningful and sustained contributions to the project's success. Because people tend to feel motivated, empowered, and committed to making meaningful behavioral changes aligned with their own values and aspirations, this approach is fundamental to establishing sustainable programs that will last beyond the support provided by grant-funded programs because it facilitates a shift in mindset.
Understanding & addressing the “readiness gap”
It’s important to understand that some farmers might express interest in starting community-oriented food scrap composting - but several steps might be needed to bridge the gap between interest and readiness.
These steps will vary from farmer to farmer, as the underlying concerns may differ. They might have to do with concerns about the technical skills needed, uneasiness about approaching their CSA or other community members about food scrap diversion, fears about the regulatory red tape (real or perceived), or just feeling too overwhelmed to take on a new project at that moment.
With the goal of establishing sustainable on-farm composting sites - the hesitation between interest and readiness needs to be recognized and addressed. Using motivational interview techniques and the other tools shared will help you better understand the sticking points and find ways to support your farmer partners through them.
Once you’ve started working with farms on community-oriented food scrap composting…
