ABOUT BRAINPLATE GROWS
A community compost project with soil under its nails.
Brainplate Grows began in 2020 with food scraps from Ahan, then grew into a community compost network connecting local kitchens, volunteers, bicycle-powered collection, and composting at Troy Farm.
The idea is simple: scraps become soil, soil supports food and habitat, and every step creates another way for neighbors to participate.
Brainplate Grows is a fiscally sponsored project of Northside Planning Council and is working toward becoming an independent 501(c)(3).
THE WORK IS A LOOP
There is no “away.” There is another cycle.
Restaurants separate their food scraps. Brainplate collects them—often by bicycle—and brings them to Troy Farm. Volunteers manage the material through active composting and curing. Finished compost returns to local growing, education, and community projects.
KITCHENS → COLLECTION → COMPOST → SOIL → FOOD + HABITAT
Keeping that loop local keeps nutrients close to the people and places that generated them.
OUR DIRECTIONA city connected by small, practical loops.
Brainplate’s work is intentionally local: neighborhood kitchens, bicycle routes, volunteers, Troy Farm, garden plots, apartment patios, classrooms, and the lake.
Each project asks the same question: what resource is already here, and how can it serve the community again?
The goal is not one enormous waste system. It is a resilient network of smaller places where scraps, soil, skills, food, and habitat keep circulating.
WHO MAKES THE LOOP POSSIBLE
Many hands. Many kitchens. One shared system.
In 2024, independent reporting counted 22 participating restaurants and food producers. Farmers, gardeners, FEED Kitchens vendors, volunteers, and neighborhood groups extend that network beyond collection day.
Each participant contributes something different: separated scraps, a bicycle route, a place to compost, a workday, growing knowledge, a garden bed, or a meal grown with healthier soil.
This Work Belongs to Everyone.
ROOTED IN MADISONLocal work. Shared knowledge.
Brainplate is not offering a one-size-fits-all solution. The organization demonstrates what can happen when one city keeps nutrients close, invites people into the process, and treats composting as a relationship instead of a disposal service.
Learn from the process, volunteer locally, or help another neighborhood build its own loop.