Salt Lake City’s Sustainable Food Initiatives

Why does Salt Lake City have a food policy program? Community gardens, an incubator kitchen, pesticide free resources, farmers’ markets… it all helps foster a healthy city and flourishing economy.  Watch the video and then scroll through the blog post to find more details about the programs and initiatives mentioned by our program manager Bridget Stuchly.

Community Gardens

Salt Lake City has great community garden opportunities at our existing sites: Off Broadway Community Garden, Liberty Wells, Rose Park, Cannon Greens, Popperton Plots, and the 9-Line community gardens. See the full list here.

Organic Compost

There is a great new way to get locally produced natural fertilizer for your home lawn or garden! The new “Buck a Bucket” program launched this spring by the Salt Lake Valley Landfill will sell five gallons of compost for $1 to anyone who supplies their own bucket. The promotion ends July 31, 2018.

Pesticide Free SLC 

As part of the Healthy Babies Bright Futures initiative, Salt Lake City is working to reduce exposures to harmful chemicals—many of which we unknowingly come in contact with on a daily basis. A common source of harmful chemical exposure is through pesticides (including herbicides, rodenticide, insecticide, and fungicide) and lawn fertilizer use. Salt Lake City’s Sustainability Department partnered with Beyond Pesticides to create a public resource guide for a less toxic approach to pest management and lawn care.

We encourage city residents to help reduce the amount of chemical pesticides and fertilizer they use. Take the Pesticide Free SLC pledge to receive a yard sign.

Wasatch Community Gardens Workshops

June

6th Advanced Topics in Chicken Care #2

13th Tomato Pruning & Trellising

16th DIY Solar with Giles Larsen

20th Urban Chicken Keeping Basics

See the full 2018 workshop list here.

Dining With Discretion

All food comes with a carbon footprint that we should be aware of so we can make informed choices. In Utah, our food choices contribute to 25% of the household carbon footprint, and the impacts occur throughout the entire life-cycle of the food we eat. Therefore, understanding the food system allows us to make dietary decisions that have a direct impact on climate change, as well as our local environment and economy. Click here to learn more.

Food Waste

Salt Lake City has a goal to achieve Zero Waste by 2040, which means all waste is recycled, reused, or composted instead of being sent to a landfill. In an effort to increase business recycling, Salt Lake City amended its Solid Waste and Recycling Ordinance (9.08.200).

Businesses that produce a large amount of green waste or food waste can compost this waste to comply with the new ordinance. Click here to see the list of authorized recycling haulers.

Square Kitchen

The concept is simple—eliminate some of the biggest barriers to entry for entrepreneurs to succeed in the food industry. Often the single biggest barrier is lack of commercial kitchen space. Finding space that is big enough, has the right equipment, and is affordable can make or break a food startup’s ultimate success.

The Square Kitchen can currently accommodate 14 businesses at a time, and has the space to continue to grow. This is good news because there are 85 interested businesses on the wait-list!

Farmers’ Markets

Community gardens, urban farms, public lands, urban plots, and even rooftops are all innovative ways to address food security, environmental issues, and the need for green space in an urban setting. They also support Salt Lake City’s goal of increasing direct access to fresh foods and promoting community-based food production to minimize the environmental impacts of transporting food long distances.

Urban Greens Market

One of these markets is the Urban Greens Market, a mobile farm stand which is a project of SLCgreen and the Green Urban Lunch box. It’s dedicated to bringing more fresh, local healthy produce to the Glendale and Poplar Grove neighborhoods of Salt Lake City. Anyone can visit! Stop by in 2018 and pick up a cute market bag! Text “MARKET” to 51555 for updates

SLC FruitShare

Every year in Salt Lake City, tens of thousands of pounds of fruit fall to the ground and rot, creating a public health hazard and a waste management problem. Salt Lake City contracts with the Green Urban Lunch Box to run the SLC FruitShare program. You can register your fruit trees by clicking below and Green Urban Lunch Box will contact you to set up a  harvest.

• Register your fruit trees to receive assistance with harvest, thinning and pruning.*

• Volunteer to help with harvest (you’ll walk away with freshly picked produce!)