Loop Closing

• 🎉 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT🎉 Today announced the 229 invited to participate in the program and Loop Closing is one of them! This cohort marks MassChallenge’s 50th accelerator program; the incoming cohort is comprised of startups from 20 countries, 26 industries, > 30 U.S. States; the cohort is also 48% , 47% BIPOC founded! 🎉Meet the cohort here ➡️

‘U.S. Early Stage 21 Cohort Announcement’ by MassChallenge Built with Readymag—a tool to design anything on the web.

🙌🏿 🎉 We are ecstatic to announce that selected Loop Closing for their current round of Catalytic Funding! Echoing Green provides this funding to support the growth and power of former Fellows whose organizations pursue racial justice. The unrestricted grants are designed to advance solutions across issue areas that address differential outcomes and experiences of Black, Indigenous, and people of color globally and enable racial equity organizations to scale. Recognizing that Loop Closing fits squarely in that category, they invited Jeffrey Neal, our founder and 2019 Echoing Green Fellow, to apply.

Thank you, , for your confidence in us and your generosity!

Want to learn more about Loop Closing and how we can help you achieve your goals? Contact us here: https://www.loopclosing.com

Check out our latest blog on our work published in the Commission of Environmental Protection!

Published by the Commission of Environmental Protection! Read about our partnership with Recycle Leaders and Soilful to implement a Sustainability DC 2.0. Community Action Grant!

Check out this week's piece in which Voice of America broadcasting discussed on-site composting as one way to help divert food waste in light of the heightened demand for fresh produce: https://www.voanews.com/episode/covid-19-spurs-innovation-combat-hunger-preventing-food-waste-4651971. They propose that food is wasted much less within local and smaller distribution systems, but we can never entirely avoided it. So, they look at innovative efforts which have the potential for dramatic change such as Jeffrey and Loop Closing. Read our blog here: https://www.loopclosing.com/single-post/local-solutions-lower-food-waste-rates And as always, if you have food scraps and are not sure what do with them, we can help you find a food waste diversion solution - contact us via DM!

Local Solutions Lower Food Waste Rates Check out this week's piece in which Voice of America broadcasting discussed on-site composting as one way to help divert food waste in light of the heightened demand for fresh produce. They brought their story to Washington, DC, home to an established local food systems network due to numerous farm...

Loop Closing provided installation, commissioning (start-up), and training for Baltimore City’s Office of Sustainability’s first on-site composting machine this week! Malcolm House and ILSR () partnered with us to stand up the project and provide guidance and a supporting data collection system. Malcolm House receives recovered food for feeding the community, consistent with ILSR’s food hierarchy. Then, only what cannot be reused is recycled by composting it on-site to avoid hauling and its associated problems. This composting system is part of a larger project funded by .org, fostering community on-site composting at 13 sites across Baltimore. Want to learn more about how we can help you upcycle food? Contact us at https://www.loopclosing.com

Please join us by signing DC's Environmental Network's petition - https://www.change.org/p/dc-deserves-both-a-zero-waste-friendly-dpw-director-and-a-fully-funded-zero-waste-bill?recruiter=853502079&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=429a6680-069c-11e8-9219-d3498cd3d3da - to Mayor Bowser to fully fund the "Zero Waste Omnibus Amendment Act of 2020" and find a qualified and inspired professional to lead the DC Department of Public Works (DPW).

Sign the Petition DC deserves both a zero-waste friendly DPW Director and a fully funded zero-waste bill!

Baltimore’s First On-Site Food Waste Composting Machine: That we know of

The pouring rain fogging the windows didn’t stop Pluvr’s Max Van Praag from expertly slinging the trailer into tight positions, graciously using his vehicle to move the composting machine. DC Central Kitchen & staff helped us load it. After wading through Noah’s Ark-sized puddles covering the interstate, House staff helped us unload. Teamwork makes the dream work with 30-second loading and unloading sessions. This will expand Malcolm House's composting of food after first reusing all that was fit for consumption and distributed to the community that needs it. supported by .org funded an instruction and data collection guide for composting here and at various sites. If you want to attend the unpacking and initial training session to see how this on-site food waste composting machine operates with the guide and data system on Wednesday 31 March from 10- 11:30am, contact us here: https://www.loopclosing.com.

Make the Most of Food Challenge - Earth Month 2021 - Are You In?

Our Washington, DC dynamic partner, Recycle Leaders, has organized and launched a fun, inclusive, and relevant way to commemorate Earth Month - Make the Most of Food challenge - https://www.recycleleaders.com/current-challenge! By Thursday, April 1, sign up to remotely join teams representing schools and organizations from across the country to "Make the Most of Food" together for Earth Month 2021.

During the 4-week civic action challenge, teams of households will track what, why, and how much food is discarded in a week and then take actions together that can improve nutrition, save money, and reduce waste. According to Project Drawdown, reducing food waste is the #1 climate change solution and the only one of the top 3 that we can easily do at home.

Sign up now! Watch the training video and check out the guidance documents in this link for more information to learn everything you need to know to lead the Challenge.

Hats off to Recycle Leaders and the Audubon Naturalist Society for initiating this meaningful action! The Challenge is based on EPA's Food too Good to Waste toolkit and informed by lessons learned from our Team Up on Food Waste @ DC Wards 7 and 8 action research project funded by Sustainable DC (check out our blog here for more details on that project:https://www.loopclosing.com/single-post/growing-changemakers). Finally, thanks to the DC Office of State Superintendent of Education for their funding.



During the campaign, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff said that he would use his groundbreaking role to elevate food insecurity and its issues. On his first solo public outing, which took place right here in Washington, DC, he made efforts on that promise by meeting with our partner nonprofit organization, Dreaming Out Loud. They have the dual mission of decreasing food insecurity and increasing economic opportunity for Washingtonians, and we lead their composting operations. In that capacity, we help train staff and community members on the processes and importance of composting as a part of their workforce development program. We also coordinate with critical supporting partners such as the Dept of Parks and Recreation, Dept of Public Works, DC Central Kitchen, and the Kelly Miller Middle School. Check out the video here of Chris Bradshaw showing him the composter!
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4943511/user-clip-2g-emhoff-composting-fkm-30s

“This is just so amazing to see the passion, the way these folks are approaching this and how they’re serving the community and coming to a school on a plot of land that hadn’t been used and to actually grow food and then serve the community that way, and also to educate the community about what's going on,” Emhoff said. We hope to see his influence with Vice President Harris bear fruit on firm federal policy supporting stripping away racial inequities in our food systems. Such changes would support our work and our many partners in Washington, DC and the DMV region.

New to Loop Closing? Click on the LC link to subscribe, and we will keep you informed on how to take action. Tune in on March 9th to the DC Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment Budget Oversight Hearing for the Dept of Public Works - our founder and COO, Jeffrey Neal will testify on the importance of supporting such efforts as decentralized composting at the Dreaming Out Load farm.

User Clip: 2G Emhoff - Composting at FKM - 30s Composting benefits and partners

We 👏👏👏👏 and honor our composting still making a difference in their communities by diverting tons of food waste from landfills. Founder Jeffrey Neal and Justen Garrity Veteran Compost still serve & we honor them

Check out our 2nd blog on our Department of Energy & Environment project with & Soilful in which we demonstrate that works & enables organizations to live their values of diversion!
DC Central Kitchen Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) https://loopclosing.com/single-post/on-site-composting-enables-organizations-to-live-their-values…

On-site Composting Enables Organizations to Live Their Values As we shared in our last post, Loop Closing partnered with Recycle Leaders LLC and Soilful to complete their DOEE’s Sustainable DC-sponsored pilot project, “Food First: A Replicable Model for Engaging Ward 7 and 8 Residents in Taking Action on Sustainable DC Topics.” In this second pilot, we w...