BK ROT of Brooklyn, NY has been named the winner of the 2021 Community Food Funders Champions Award!
Six funders in the CFF network, plus the 2020 winner Hattie Carthan Community Food Projects, comprised the selection committee. BK ROT was chosen in recognition of their community-based food waste hauling and composting programs, environmental and social justice principles, and youth development. Put together they represent the triple bottom line approach to food systems change. In other years, a representative from the organization would present about their work at the CFF Annual Gathering, but that event has been postponed this year. Instead, a virtual award presentation was held in which BK ROT staff shared about the organization.
Watch a video below of the online award presentation held on July 28th
2021 Champion: BK ROT
BK ROT is New York City’s first community-supported, bike-powered, fossil fuel free food waste hauling and composting service. The project is staffed by young people of color who haul residential and commercial organic waste and transform it into high quality compost. Their operations provide accessible jobs and sustained professional development for emerging environmental leaders.
BK ROT is a community centered, closed loop, fossil-fuel free approach to hauling and composting food waste in NYC. They represent a localized green economy rooted in the principles and values of environmental justice. BK ROT creates space for the leadership of young people of color who disproportionately face the consequences of environmental destruction and yet whose visions and values are excluded from the dominant policy and design strategies for urban sustainability. They prioritize slow growth with deep roots versus rapid expansion that is not grounded. BK ROT is designing and implementing a new kind of waste system, one that uses food waste as the foundation for a healthy urban ecosystem, that uplifts the people and places responsible for managing waste, and that demonstrates the power of a regenerative green economy. They are supporting the next generation of environmental and climate justice leaders who will shape our city.
At the special webinar on July 28th, BK ROT was represented by Ceci Pineda, Executive Director, and Shaq Benn, Operations Specialist.
Ceci came to BK ROT in 2016 as a pick up household member and volunteer. Ceci fell in love with compost through BK ROT and the NYC Master Composter course. In 2017, Ceci joined the BK ROT Advisory Board and then became a Board member in 2018. Ceci is adamant about addressing deep climate inequities and find hope in community practices that further land regeneration and reciprocally heal our communities.
Shaq joined BK ROT in 2019 as the Operations Assistant after completing high school at Bushwick Campus Academy, a long-time partner of BK ROT in recruitment. Since joining BK ROT, Shaq has grown in leadership. He currently manages the final stages of BK ROT’s compost, including sifting, managing storage, and compost distribution. Shaq also supports with programming, BK ROT workshops and the Youth Leaders program. Shaq is also from Guyana. Shaq is studying at CUNY and loves calculus.
More about the CFF Champions Award
The Community Food Funders steering committee created the CFF Champions Award to recognize the leaders empowering food system change in our region. The award aims to promote the work of an outstanding leader or organization that is working towards the transition of our food system to one that pursues a true triple bottom line: a system that honors and values people, the environment, and sustainable economic models.
Thank you to all the funders who submitted nominations