The University of New Orleans has received a grant from the Greater New Orleans Foundation to pilot a sustainability initiative aimed at reducing food waste through composting and community gardening. The award will support a project titled "Lowering Food Waste Through Gardening" and will run from May 1 through October 31, 2025.

Led by principal investigator Carol Tanya Lunn, the project will partner with campus housing to collect food waste from a residential building. Waste will be transported to the UNO campus garden, where it will be processed into compost by members of the UNO Garden Club. The compost will then be used in the garden, turning food waste back into fresh food for the community.

The pilot project is designed to assess the labor and logistics involved in meeting the campus's collection and composting needs. If successful, the program may be scaled to include additional buildings or food waste sources across campus. The initiative also aims to increase awareness about sustainability and food waste reduction within the UNO community.