Night of the Living Compost: The Siftening

involveMINT is throwing a Halloween-flavored party at the Hazelwood Food Recycling Site on Saturday, October 24, from 5:30 to 8:30 PM. They're calling it Night of the Living Compost: The Siftening, and it marks one year of the Hazelwood Local food-recycling initiative. The numbers from that first year are worth mentioning: 100,000 pounds of food scraps diverted, 700 pounds of produce harvested, and $23,000 worth of Impact Credits minted.

The night runs on an open-house system. You drop off food scraps to earn Impact Credits, which you can spend with the event's vendors and local businesses or redeem for compost. It's a currency backed by the compost produced on-site, tying economic value to healthy soil and a stronger neighborhood food system. The evening adds hands-on composting demos, a sifting competition, partner vendors, free local food and drink, a campfire, and a hayride. Costumes are encouraged.

If you're coming from across town, you can make a full afternoon of it: the neighborhood's Fall Minifest runs from 3:30 to 6 PM, so you can hit that before the party kicks off. The suggested donation is $25, but it's pay-what-you-want. The site is at 4501 Sylvan Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15207.