Island Grown Initiative is among several New England organizations recently recognized with national and regional awards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their work keeping wasted food out of landfills and incinerators and putting it to better use.

The EPA gave regional recognition to Island Grown’s Food Waste Reduction and Redirection Project, which reclaims food that was once taken away as waste and gives it to the hungry or composts it, according to a press release from the federal agency this week.

Regional awards also went to the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Rhode to End Hunger Initiative, in Providence; the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District food waste reduction program in Montpelier and the Center for Ecotechnology, in Florence, Mass. for their project “Help Hartford County’s Hungry” in Hartford County, Conn.

The EPA gave national recognition to Keene State College, in Keene, N.H.; the Katharine Lee Bates Elementary School, in Wellesley and Signature Bread, in Chelsea.

The awards are part of EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to reduce food loss and waste through combined federal action, according to the press release.