Rhode Island Food Policy Council

06/25/2026

“We have some really model programs happening here when it comes to wasted food, but just not enough of them,” Bearg said. “Part of the reason for that is a lack of infrastructure and a lack of funding.”

We're excited to see our state featured in Waste Dive as we embark on a new Rhode Island Foundation funded program to reduce and donate food from businesses, and build wasted food champions, while continuing the work we're doing, funded by 11th Hour Racing to work across our network to expand composting throughout the state.

The state’s disposal ban still isn’t being enforced 10 years later, but advocates are getting traction on new policy ideas including a recently signed school food waste reduction bill.

06/15/2026

The Rhode Island Food Policy Council (RIFPC) applauds the passage of The Urban and Small Farm Success Act (S2827/H7242), a transformative legislative victory that will exempt urban and small farmers from sales, property, and income taxes, championing a more just, equitable, and sustainable local food economy across the Ocean State.

Kudos to our members who worked hard to pass this legislation like Sienna at Open fArms Retreat and partners like Southside Community Land Trust.

See our full statement below:

06/05/2026

🌈 Celebrating this month with gratitude for the powerful work of - providing food, clothes, counseling, housing assistance, job training and a support system to Providence LGBTQ+ youth 🌈

Learn more about Youth Pride RI and other RI Stories in 's linktree or https://rifoodcouncil.org/rhode-island-stories/

06/02/2026

Finishing our spring intern appreciation, we want to thank Jenna Shannon, a current student, who spent this past academic year with us as our fundraising research intern! Jenna played a key role in researching and helping us apply for a host of different opportunities. This included evaluating grant opportunities, helping us prepare letters of intent and applications. 2025 was a tough year for many nonprofits, RIFPC included, so this was a great time to have her on board to help us enter and move through 2026 in a much better place. Thanks again to Jenna and all our spring interns!

05/29/2026

Continuing to thank our spring interns, we want to thank Kaylie Hanisak our Compost Awareness fellow. A recent graduate of the Brown University Urban Education program, Kaylie spent a year with us as part of her academic studies, primarily working on boosting education and awareness of composting. You may have seen her featured recently as we dropped off postcards at the Statehouse on behalf of International Compost Awareness Week for legislators educating them on how they might support composting, but that was just one part of the project! This included creating composting presentations suitable for students of all ages (K-12), outreach to educators, and presentations in classrooms across the state. Kaylie also did a great job working with our partners like Rhode Island Environmental Education Association - RIEEA RI School Recycling Project, and Food Recovery for RI. Thanks, Kaylie, for all your work!

05/27/2026

As we get ready to welcome our summer interns, we wanted to take a moment this week to thank our 3 great spring interns. First up is Arybella Thuel. Arybella, who, just graduated from the University of Rhode Island, served as our Compost Data & Policy Intern. In addition to other projects, her primary role was to help us complete the state's first-ever Food Scrap Collection and Processing survey. Working with food scrap haulers, composters, anaerobic digesters, and more, Arybella helped design the survey, which aimed to understand the amount of food scraps being diverted from the landfill by haulers in the state and the amount of food scraps being processed in the state. By understanding this data over time it will let the state know how we're progressing towards our wasted food sustainability goals.

In addition to helping design the survey, her outreach efforts also led us to a nearly 80% response rate.

Thanks to all who were part of this project and to Arybella for her work. Look out for results on this project very soon!

05/12/2026

Last week RI celebrated International Compost Awareness week! There were composter led events across the state and the RI Food Policy Council was excited to get in on the action. On Thursday our Food, Climate and Environment (FCE) Program Director Isaac Bearg and FCE Program intern Kaylie Hanisak went to the state house and delivered postcards to legislators from students across the state on why composting is important to them.

Then on Friday we took part in the closing celebration at Farm Fresh Rhode Island. Thanks to all those who led this week long celebration including Epic Renewal Harvest Cycle Compost Bootstrap Compost Zero Waste Providence Care Farm Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District Northern RI Conservation District CET: Resilient Climate Solutions URI Cooperative Extension School Recycling Project and many more. Comment Compost below if you want to know how to keep touch on all things compost and food waste related in RI.

05/08/2026

How do RI food producers and food security organizations share information and resources? How do we make sure every one of our neighbors can get fresh, high quality food?
Through Rhody Feeding Rhody!

Join RIFPC and at our Spring meeting
May 13th 1:00-2:30 pm
Join us at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83758443818

05/06/2026

Did you know? RIFPC hosts a monthly lunchtime chat with experienced food policy advocates, where you can hear about all the latest developments at the RI State House.

Join us for the next Policy Cafe!
When: Tuesday May 12th at noon
Where: Via Zoom -link in our bio

05/04/2026

Did you know this week is International Compost Awareness Week?

At the Food Policy Council, we're strong advocates for composting in RI for many reasons. When we eliminate food scraps from the landfill\ we save our fellow taxpayers a lot of money over time and reduce harmful methane emissions. When we turn it into compost we create a product that helps create more nutrient-dense foods, absorbs more water into the soil helping with both flooding AND droughts.

That's why we are especially excited that the RI compost community has put together a week's worth of fantastic events from Westerly to Providence for ICAW, including our closing celebration at on Friday. Check out the full calendar of events and join us!

www.epicrenewal.org/lrcw