The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recently received an Environmental Protection Agency Recycling Education and Outreach Grant for $1,164,792. The fund will devote some of the proceeds to expanding food waste reduction projects at participating Gwinnett County public schools. The remaining funds will fuel WWF projects in Baltimore, Md., Memphis, Tenn., and Nashville, Tenn. Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful introduced the Food Waste Warriors Initiative to select Gwinnett schools through a Keep America Beautiful-Lowe’s Community Improvement Grant in 2018. By 2020, Gwinnett Clean &Beautiful partnered with the WWF to expand the food waste reduction initiative as a critical element of the nonprofit’s Green & Healthy Schools Program.  

Announced on the EPA website on America Recycles Day and the second anniversary of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the EPA Recycling Education and Outreach Grant is designed to empower “Communities to Recycle and Prevent Food Waste through Evidence-Based Interventions, Policy Change, and Technology in Title I Schools.” WWF’s Food Waste Warriors initiative empowers teachers and administrators at K-12 schools through stipends, toolkits, and lesson plans to engage students and act on the issue of food waste. 

“I am so proud of the many ways Food Waste Warriors has augmented the Green & Healthy Schools program through our incredible partnership with the World Wildlife Fund,” said Schelly Marlatt, executive director of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful. “It’s a wonderful example of STEM education and environmental stewardship in action, and our local students get to live it out virtually every day. At participating Gwinnett County schools, students take food waste audits, track the data, create share tables in the cafeteria to minimize waste, collect food scraps, and deliver them to the Compost Connectors composting system. The funds from this grant will help us expand the program further at participating schools and bring more schools into the food waste reduction fold. An added benefit is that it will help us grow our circle of up-and-coming environmental stewards.” 

In addition to the EPA Recycling Education and Outreach Grant, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful and WWF proudly announce that they have extended their funding partnership into 2024.