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Project REDUCE
Restaurants Eliminating & Diverting Uneaten food through Composting & Education
Phoenix generates 270,000 tons of food waste annually. Project REDUCE restaurants are doing something about that. Project REDUCE is the City’s first program dedicated to supporting restaurants reduce food loss and waste.
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
Project REDUCE Overview
Phase One: Holisitic Approach The first phase of restaurants diverted 31,000 pounds of food from the landfill by preventing waste, donating surplus food, and composting food scraps.
Phase Two: Emphasis on Prevention To build on the successes of phase one restaurants in food waste prevention, the City issued a microgrant program offering restaurants up to $2,000 to implement simple, convenient, and innovative food waste prevention solutions.
Phase Three: Food Waste Prevention Microgrants Expanding on the accomplishments in phase two, the City will be issuing $1,000 microgrants to small local Phoenix restaurants along with hands-on guidance, training, and technical assitance from Chef Chris Lenza. The food waste prevention projects will help resturants prevent waste and save money.
Phase Three: Food Waste Prevention Microgrants
The Office of Environmental Programs will provide $1,000 microgrants to small local Phoenix resturants to implement simple, convenient, and innovative food waste prevention projects. Prevention project ideas include:
- Inventory, storage & equipment, and purchasing optimization
- Menu and portion adjustments
- Preservation tools and shelf-life extension
- Training, communication, and culture
Benefits
Timeline
Information Sessions
Do you have any questions about Project REDUCE? Join us for two (1-hour) listening sessions to learn more about Project REDUCE food waste prevention solutions, your application, and ask us questions about the program!
Information Listening Session #1: Monday May 18, 2026 at 3 p.m.
Information Listening Session #2: Wednesday June 3, 2026 at 10 a.m.
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
Phase Two: Project REDUCE Food Waste Prevention Microgrant
The Office of Environmental Programs provided micro-grants to four local restaurants in the Downtown Core area to support piloting simple, convenient, and innovative food waste prevention solutions. See program statistics below.
Project REDUCE Phase 1
Previously, the City worked with nine restaurants and four key partners to comprehensively eliminate food waste through prevention, rescue, and composting measures through a 10-week program. The goal was to stop food from ending up in landfills by helping restaurants prevent waste, donate surplus food, and compost scraps.
Over the course of the pilot, the participating restaurants located on Roosevelt Row and Historic Grand Avenue diverted 31,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill!
Watch the documentary below to learn more about Project REDUCE!
Meet Chef Chris Lenza
Restaurants met with local chef Chris Lenza, National Executive Chef of the Cafe Bon Appetit Wellness Team, to receive hands-on guidance and training on food waste prevention strategies that are specific to each restaurant's unique needs.
Donating Surplus Food
Participating restaurants utilized Waste Not's free MealConnect app to donate surplus food throughout the eight week pilot. Restaurants used MealConnect to pair food donations with volunteer drivers and a recipient agency. For more information on signing up for MealConnect, please visit mealconnect.org/donate.
Composting Food Scraps
Each restaurant was provided with free compost collection services from Reycled City for the full 10-week challenge period.
For restaurants that were interested, the City of Phoenix conducted waste audits and provided information about how much waste are they generated and diverted at the beginning and end of the pilot to track progress.
A special thank you to our program partners:
Contact Us
Email: phxfood@phoenix.gov
Note when you submit an email it falls under the city's policy which states that the email message is: (1) subject to public disclosure under the Public Records Law, (2) not private or confidential and (3) retained for 90 days.