Church of the Holy Family Awarded $750 Green Grant

Hands holding composted soil made from food scrapsChurch of the Holy Family, in Virginia Beach, is awarded a $750 Green Grant in the Recycling category to create a food scraps composting program, as part of our 13th Annual Green Grants Program.

Every year, government, non-profit, civic, and service organizations in Virginia are invited to apply for grants ranging from $500 to $1,000 that will help address an environmental concern in their community. Grants must focus on one of the following priorities: Litter Prevention, Recycling, Cigarette Litter Prevention, or Community Beautification.

Photograph of the Church of the Holy Family buildingThe Church of the Holy Spirit is a Catholic Church with Ministries that dedicate themselves in service to the Parish Community, building a just society, and outreach to those in need.  They will start a program to collect food scraps to be recycled into compost.  The benefits of composting include, reducing landfill waste, reduced need for synthetic fertilizers, and reduced soil erosion.

The church will become a weekly drop-off  location for people to bring their food scraps to a composting bin located at Church. The bin will be picked up weekly by Natural Organic Process Enterprises (NOPE), who will process it at a composting facility.

Funds awarded by the Green Grant will be used to purchase compostable bags to distribute to participants for use in transporting food waste, and bins to collect and store the food waste for weekly collection.  They will closely monitor and weigh the amount of compost collected each week, with the hope to receive about fifty pounds of compost each week, for a total of over 1,300 pounds in a year.

Way to go Church of the Holy Spirit!  Thank you for initiating a composting program in your parish, and teaching others the importance of turning food scraps into rich composting material.