Tucson students are learning how leftovers from their school lunches can help grow the foods making up their future meals through a new city-led initiative, “From Scraps to Soil.”
The program is federally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Composting and Food Waste Reduction grant. It supplies $360,000 over the course of two years to help 10 TUSD schools turn food waste into compost, which will then be returned to school and community gardens to help grow produce.
The project is also in partnership with the local nonprofit Iskashitaa Refugee Network, which will serve as a resource for employment, volunteering and education. The nonprofit’s harvest program recovers up to 50 tons of local produce every year that would otherwise go to waste, according to Amelia Natoli, the acting director…