What is Participatory Budgeting (PB)? And why should I care?

Amazing questions!

Participatory Budgeting is a chance for communities to decide together how government money is spent. The process is simple: craft proposals and then vote on how to invest in your neighborhood. 

In 2022, there will be 2 MILLION DOLLARS allocated to projects of the people, by the people, for the people of the North Nashville / Bordeaux neighborhoods. Community brainstorms go to Budget Delegates, who turn the community's ideas into drafted proposals - which then become a ballot that the community votes on. 

We are working with the Nashville mayor’s office to get the word out and tell the story. We’ll be conducting interviews & collecting stories from the citizens involved with last year’s pilot PB cycle; then working within community networks to share those stories.

The first project from 2021's pilot cycle broke ground in February and the 2022 PB cycle starts in March.

Let’s all tell the story of how our money gets spent!

Grounds to Gardens

Coffee grounds are Compost Superfood - their high levels of much-needed nitrogen as well as calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorous, magnesium & chromium can all be returned to the Earth to stimulate growth. Local food-growers and their soil would benefit immensely from an influx of coffee grounds in their compost.

While helping produce a coffee & art festival in 2021, we heard from vendors & coffee sponsors of their desire to put their bounty of coffee grounds to good use - and keep them out of the landfill. While the entrepreneurs of the commercial compost pick-up world understandably need to generate revenue, the cost is often not sustainable for many food & beverage services with slim profit margins.

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Being connected to local food growers (and compost nerds ourselves!), we saw a future solution waiting to emerge!

Partnering with Honest Coffee Roasters in West Nashville, we are developing reliable, flexible, free-to-ultra-low-cost systems to connect this valuable resource back to the local food system that needs it. Utilizing a network of volunteers from the passionate coffee community, we will scale our processes to other Nashville-area coffee shops, community gardens, and urban farms once we have tested and developed sustainable methods and communication systems.