The biggest problem with kitchen scraps is Raccoons. And Squirrels, Groundhogs, Skunks, Bears, Wolverines, and others... Once they discover your stash they will revisit often, like every night. Autumn leaves are more wonderful. They are free and come every year at the end of the season. You can make arrangements with neighbors to put only clean leaves in their bags, which you collect every week and give them their bags back. Some older, more densely populated communities collect leaves that the rabble rake off the curb. In that case, they have a central yard someplace close by where they dump them for trans-shipping, and usually they allow citizens to take all they want. If you have a vehicle that will accommodate raw loads or several containers, those leaves are much denser because they have been wet a few times. I hauled a couple loads in my van for ten years on my sandy lot years ago, adding 8 to 10 inches each fall making for a shield that was impenetrable to weeds, year-around. Ten inches laid down to ~3" by each following spring which I would turn in with a shovel. I also collected bags of leaves, strategically, waiting until the world was covered deep enough to be sure that the bags I collected were, indeed, clean leaves. I saved them over winter and used them for mulch in spring until I could cover everything with grass clippings. I had very few weeds, year-around. Broadcasting 20-20-20 after garden clean-up every fall to insure that the N-P-K granules had dispersed into the leaves that I would dig-in the following spring gave me deluxe dirt.
You need to be careful when collecting neighbor's grass clippings: a load of weed-and-feed clippings will stifle growth or kill anything you mulch with it.
Manure is problematic. Even though it's usually free for the asking from any place with horses, it comes with hay stable-sweepings and more seeds per cubic inch than you might think possible. And, your neighbors may notice...
I live in a new place now and still work to approximately the same end, but more upper-class. My brother lives on an acre lot with many large trees. He vacuums the leaves up with his riding mower, bags them up, and I get 12 to 15 bags of finely chopped leaves in return for buying him lunch. I have lots of Hosta beds that have Periwinkle or Pachysandra ground-covers. I spread the chopped leaves over an area and then sweep it in with a broom. It's not necessary to do a good job, -just a few strokes here and there to get it in-between the top foliage. The rain and snow and time will get it down close to earth and everything will be replaced by new growth the following spring, anyway. My beds improve every year because I more than replace the humus used-up by each succeeding year's new growth. I keep one or two large garbage cans full of these chopped leaves dry for garden mulch for the next growing season. I love my brother.
I live in a deer-proof area, and I export rabbits to local parks on a continuing basis. No, I'm not dead and in heaven. Close...