A Traverse City company that bicycles door-to-door, first to pick up kitchen scraps and then to deliver buckets of garden compost, will expand its services, thanks to a $100,000 grant from a foundation that boosts women entrepreneurs.
What’s happening: Carter’s Compost, owned and operated by Megan Alexander, hauls away food scraps from residential and commercial subscribers and converts them into a finished compost for home gardens. The service is one of six businesses awarded a $100,000 EmpowHer grant by Traverse City-based
Boundless Futures Foundation. Alexander says the money will allow the company to upgrade its collection system, improve educational materials and community outreach, and update collateral.
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The backstory: Now serving 100 residential and commercial customers, Carter’s Compost began nearly 15 years ago when schoolboy Carter Schmidt launched the service from his backyard, bicycling around Traverse City to collect his neighbor’s kitchen scraps to add to his backyard compost pile. Alexander’s parents were among Carter’s early subscribers. The popular service grew and grew, but by the time Carter was ready to graduate high school, he was ready to move on.
It was at about that time that Alexander came back to her hometown. “When I moved home in 2021, Carter's Compost had been posting on Facebook that they were looking for someone to take over,” Alexander says. She could not bear the thought of such a valuable community service ending, “so, I reached out to chat about the opportunity.
“I knew it was destined to be something I took over,” she says, “when I met the family and learned that Carter was going to be an exchange student overseas — something significant to me as I was an exchange student myself in 2004.”
Her business background in supply chain management and sustainability made the service a great fit for her skillset, Alexander says.
“I left the first meeting with a box full of compost goods and was ready to take on a new challenge,” she says. “Now here I am, going into my fourth year, and we've grown from collecting approximately 6,000 pounds of food waste per year to collecting more than 25,000 pounds in 2024, with plans to continue to expand and have a broader impact on this beautiful community!”
How it works: Carter's subscribers, commercial and residential alike, are given clean containers for kitchen scraps, which are regularly swapped out, filled buckets for clean empty ones. Subscribers may also dump scraps off at drop-off sites. The scraps are mixed with other organic materials; when composting is complete, residential subscribers have the option to get a full bucket of compost several times per year. “We still bike from May to October for residential pickups,” Alexander says, “and use a truck for commercial pickups, as well as all winter pickups.”
About Boundless Futures Foundation: Since its inception in late 2023, Boundless Futures Foundation has awarded more than $750,000 in EmpowHer and Her Village grants to support female entrepreneurs and projects that address social issues related to sustainability and the environment and strong communities.
“At Boundless Futures Foundation we are focused not only on providing funding and leadership resources to these inspirational female founders who are doing social good in our communities and the world, but we are also intent on eliminating barriers for female entrepreneurs,” says Soon Hagerty, founder and president, Boundless Futures Foundation.
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"I am blown away by the dedication, knowledge and passion of our grantees each time I speak with them and learn more about the incredible businesses they are building," she says. "Many of our grantees, like Carter's Compost, are dedicated to creating businesses for both growth and good. They are a shining example of a business that strives to improve the environment and protect our planet. That's a worthy endeavor, and their work will impact our communities for decades to come."
What's next: “We are always looking to expand our partnerships and to increase our processing capacity,” Alexander says. “Our constraint is space to compost, so we are always trying to think one step ahead. We're also always trying to curb contamination, such as plastic bags, packaging materials, or rubber bands.”
The company’s service area is ever-changing, she says, with the goal to continually expand.
Rosemary Parker has worked as a writer and editor for more than 40 years. She is a regular contributor to Rural Innovation Exchange and other Issue Media Group publications.
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