Reuse Assistance Grant Progress Report

City of Santa Clarita's Reuse Assistance Grant Project
(Part 1: June 1, 2003 to December 1, 2003)

Project Description

The City of Santa Clarita used their grant funds for three programs to encourage and promote reuse: (1) An upgrade to the Santa Clarita Valley Swap (SCVS), a basic waste exchange of wanted and available materials; (2) A food waste donation program connecting the local Food Pantry, Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center, and FOOD Share with local restaurants and other food service businesses to donate edible food that would otherwise be discarded; and, (3) An Art Corner program to create arts and crafts from secondhand materials that are packaged and sold at local thrift stores. Local artists, crafters, students, teachers, and volunteers ran workshops for teachers and other interested participants on the use of the packaged supplies and on how to purchase the packages for classroom and other projects.

The steps required to accomplish their project are as follows:

In the work plan submitted to the CIWMB, there were 34 tasks to be completed in four major categories—food donation program, waste exchange program, art corner program and administration. Progress has been slower than anticipated for this program. This is due to staff constraints that were not anticipated at the outset of the program. Currently, progress has been made on the following tasks:

Task 1: MOU or LOA with Nonprofits (Match).
Staff has spent significant amounts of time coordinating with existing nonprofit food distribution programs. There has been some difficulty in that each provider has limited resources to distribute food collected from restaurants, although the Reuse grant funds will be providing some assistance to these venues. In addition, staff still needs to contact other organizations, including MEND in the Antelope Valley, the newly opened Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clarita, the Boys and Girls Club of Piru/Fillmore and a local church group. Once these meetings have occurred, individual MOUs will need to be drafted for each organization with the City. Task 1 is five percent complete. 

Task 7: Work with Technology Services Division and Contractor to Upgrade Database to Include New Categories and Notification System (Match). 
The Technology Services Division has held initial meetings with Environmental Services Division discussing the program needs. Upon writing of a scope of work by Environmental Services, Technology Services Division will assist in the hiring and contract management for the waste exchange database and Web site. Task 7 is five percent complete. 

Task 16: Presentation Art Corner Project to Art Alliance Council; Network with Contacts (Match).  
The local art councils were made aware of the art corner project. A member of the council who is also a writer for The Signal, the local paper, wrote a story regarding the Reuse Assistance Grant and the Art Corner project. There is significant interest in the art corner project, and staff may consider moving forward more quickly with the art corner project, and slow down the timeline for the food donation project. Task 16 is five percent complete. 

Task 35: Quarterly Report to CIWMB (Match).  
Staff is providing this quarterly report to the CIWMB. Task 35 is ten percent complete. 

Task 36: Staff Coordination Meetings as Necessary (Match).  
The Environmental Services Division has coordinated with the Community Services Division, Technology Services Division, and other departments, as required.   Task 36 is one percent complete.

*Permission was obtained from grant recipient to publish project profile.

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Last updated: June 25, 2008