News Brief: Ithaca Farmers Market receives Park Foundation grant

Ithaca Farmers Market has received a grant from the Park Foundation to continue and advance the Zero Waste Project (ZWP) to reduce waste generated at market. The successful application entitled ‘Developing a Roadmap for Long Term Sustainability of Ithaca Farmers Market’s Innovative Zero Waste Project’ is fiscally sponsored by Friends of the Ithaca Farmers Market and will build upon the work and achievements from the 2022 market season.

In 2022, with Park Foundation funding, the Zero Waste Project (ZWP) reinvigorated several waste reduction measures including vendor and customer composting and recycling. In collaboration with Dish Truck and market vendors serving prepared food and drink, the ZWP implemented and demonstrated the feasibility of an innovative durable dish initiative which has been wildly successful and effective. From August to November durable dishes replaced nearly 22,000 single-use disposables including 9500 plastic forks resulting in a huge diversion from neighboring county landfills. In addition, customer and vendor ‘back of the house’ food scraps collection diverted 1200 gallons of compostable food scraps from the landfill. Anaerobic decomposition of food scraps in landfills is a major contributor to methane, a greenhouse gas more than 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The 2023 phase of the Zero Waste Project (ZWP) will increase customer education, improve functioning of dish return stations, and identify ways to institutionalize the work to ensure its long-term sustainability at market. This project is fiscally sponsored by Friends of the Ithaca Farmers Market which was formed in 2021 as a stand alone non-profit organization to increase the community benefit of IFM and support market goals and projects. Project partners include Dish Truck and CCETC Master Composter Education Program.

Monika Roth, President of Friends of IFM, the non-profit arm of the Ithaca Market that received the grant from the Park Foundation, says: “It is very exciting and gratifying to have received this grant to continue the work begun in 2022 when we first introduced the Reusable Dish Project at Market. Customers and vendors are stepping up to the plate—literally, to embrace this project, saving thousands of plastic containers from the landfill. The Market is out front setting an example for reducing plastic waste, and it is great that the Park Foundation is a partner in supporting this effort.”

Kelly Sauve, Organizational Manager: “We are so proud of our current zero waste efforts, made possible by financial contributions from the Park Foundation and support from the Friends of the Market. IFM is a model institution for farmers markets all over the country and it makes sense that we would be a leader in sustainability as well. As we aim to protect our waterfront and protect our earth, we look forward to seeing more and more of our customers and vendors adopting reusable dishes.”