Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID) faces various environmental and economic injustices. Food insecurity, poor air quality, and high rates of health issues are consequences of decades of institutional harm and neglect. Businesses and residents in CID are at high risk of displacement due to the rise in speculative development in downtown Seattle.

Despite these hardships, CID is a culturally vibrant neighborhood with many small businesses and cultural hubs. Seattleites visit CID to eat at family-owned restaurants. The Danny Woo Community Garden is the neighborhood’s only green space, where low-income elders grow culturally relevant food. We seek to support and emphasize these community assets – restaurants and gardens.

Restaurant 2 Garden is the first step to decentralizing food waste management, propelling hyperlocal composting that brings waste management actions closer to home, and builds community in the process. Our mission is to reduce waste and build community in the CID and beyond. We are committed to innovative, community-focused solutions where food waste is transformed into soil amendments to improve health for our neighbors. 

Our project launched in 2022 with pilot operations based in Danny Woo Community Garden. In the coming year, we are scaling operations to an expanded project site at 919 S King Street which will feature a 40-foot “Earth Flow” Composter that will enable us to scale service to over 100 food businesses in the CID.