From Your Kitchen to Our Community: Stafford’s Food Scraps Make National News

Some of the biggest things start small. This season, it started with a bucket of coffee grounds and eggshells.

From June through November, shoppers at LFM Stafford brought their kitchen scraps to the marketplace every other Sunday as part of a food scrap collection pilot. What began as a simple idea, “bring your scraps while you shop,” has now been featured not once, but twice, in Waste Advantage Magazine, a national publication for the waste and recycling industry.

We couldn’t be prouder of our community.

How It Worked

The program was a partnership between five groups, each with its own role:

• The Rappahannock Regional Solid Waste Management Board (R-Board) coordinated outreach and connected residents across Stafford County and the City of Fredericksburg with the program.
• FXBG Compost handled the collection and composting, making sure every scrap was processed responsibly.
• LFM Stafford and the Fredericksburg Farmers Market served as the collection points, places where our neighbors were already coming week after week.
• The Rappahannock Educational Farm put the finished compost to work, growing fresh produce that is donated to local food banks and pantries.
• YOU, our residents and shoppers, made it all happen by saving scraps at home and bringing them in.

Hosting collection at the farmers market removed one of the biggest barriers to composting: making a separate trip. You were already coming to shop, so dropping off a bucket of scraps became part of your Sunday routine.

Our participating businesses jumped in too. When R-Board staff began collecting scraps directly from businesses at the end of each market day, participation grew even more.

The Impact by the Numbers

According to the R-Board, residents at the two markets brought in 3,354.5 pounds of food scraps in just the first five collection weekends. That’s more than 1.6 tons kept out of the landfill and turned into something useful.

Then that compost went to work. The Rappahannock Educational Farm uses it to build healthy soil, and that soil helps grow food for neighbors in need. As of July 31, the farm reported 55,658 pounds of produce harvested and donated in 2026.

That’s what “full circle” really means:

Food scraps ➜ Compost ➜ Healthy soil ➜ Fresh food ➜ Neighbors in need

Every bucket you carried in became part of that cycle.

Why It Matters

Food scraps are heavy and full of moisture. When they go to the landfill, they take up valuable space and break down without giving anything back. When they’re composted, they become a rich soil amendment that improves soil structure, helps the ground hold moisture and supports healthy growing.

At a farmers market, that story feels especially right. Many of the farmers who grow your food every week understand better than anyone that good food starts with good soil. Now our shoppers are part of that story too.

Read the Articles

Hope Mikelson, Community Outreach Supervisor for the R-Board, shared the program’s story in two articles:

• From Food Scraps to Healthy Soil (August 2026): https://wasteadvantagemag.com/from-food-scraps-to-healthy-soil/
• From Food Scraps to Food Security: R-Board’s Composting Pilot Comes Full Circle (November 2026): https://wasteadvantagemag.com/from-food-scraps-to-food-security-r-boards-composting-pilot-comes-full-circle/

Thank You

To Hope Mikelson and the R-Board team, thank you for your leadership and for choosing our market as part of this program. To Cat and the FXBG Compost crew, thank you for making collection so smooth and easy. Thank you to the Rappahannock Educational Farm for turning our scraps into food for families who need it, and to our friends at the Fredericksburg Farmers Market for being great partners.

And to every Stafford shopper who saved scraps, carried a bucket and asked “what can I bring next time?”, this recognition belongs to you.

What’s Next?

The pilot may be wrapping up for the season, but the conversation isn’t. The R-Board, FXBG Compost and Long Family Markets are already talking about the next phase, and our shoppers have been loud and clear that they’d love collection every week. We’ll share news as soon as we have it, so stay tuned!

Until then, keep saving those scraps. Your kitchen is where it all begins. 💚

Long Love Local