How Father Dom turns doo into dough. (catholic tastes).

Sixteen years ago, Father Dominic Roscioli returned to his boyhood home in Kenosha, Wisconsin to die. He had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and a rare lung disease. But when his cancer went into remission, Roscioli set about reclaiming his old neighborhood. Drug houses and porn shops had replaced the bakeries and restaurants of a once-thriving "Little Italy." He founded Kenosha in Neighborhood (KIN) Works, a neighborhood organization that succeeded in shutting down the drug houses, starting new businesses, and otherwise re-building the area.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (May 20, 2001), the group's composting program attracted the attention of an executive from the local Ocean Spray plant and a University of Wisconsin horticulturist. Eventually the three of them cooked up the "perfect recipe for compost" based on a mix that combines the cranberry waste from the cranberry-processing plant with the droppings from a nearby duck farm.

When the compost proved popular among local gardeners, Roscioli enlisted the help of actor Paul Newman, at whose camp for children with cancer the priest was volunteering each summer. Newman involved the marketing firm that advises his own food line and kicked in $25,000 for a bagging machine.

Now "Father Dom's Duck's Doo" ($9 for a 13-pound bag) provides a steady stream of dough for the continuing neighborhood revitalization projects in Kenosha.