Please give the gift of creative environmental education to more underserved New York City youth! Your year-end donation is a critical for us to continue innovating, teaching, and sharing our creative environmental STEM curriculum.

LITTER MONSTERS are everywhere, but you can take immediate action to keep plastic street litter out of our oceans and out of marine wildlife. Refuse single-use plastics by bringing your own cup, bag, straw and containers for to-go food! Changing your behavior is not so hard when you can grasp the consequebces of each peice of plastic packaging you use every day, even when you think you are disposing of it properly.

Cafeteria Culture co-created LITTER MONSTERS, a stop motion animation/live action hyrbid documentary video, with PS/MS 34M 5th graders a part of our YOUTH MEDIA forTRASH FREE WATERS program.* Students were alarmed to learn about our marine litter plight. They scripted this story from thier unique urban youth POV to show their community and the world how seemingly harmless plastic street litter gets into our waterways, threatens our oceans, harms marine wildlife and returns to us in our seafood dinner. 

Did you know, when it rains in New York City and over 700 other US municipalities, large amounts of water can cause combined sewer systems to overflow? This allows street litter and raw sewage to flow directly out to our local waterways, making its way to the ocean and eventually to the bellies of marine wildlife. Get inspired to take action to reduce your to-go plastic use.

Together with our students, we are testing out and sharing youth-designed, community-based solutions to reduce local polluting plastic litter that becomes a toxic global threat to our oceans and wildflife.

* THANK YOU to all of our individual donors and funders who made our Youth ARTS+Media for TRASH FREE WATERS School Program 2015-16 and this video possible:

• The US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, Sustainable Materials Management, CASD
• NYC Councilwoman Rosie Mendez
• UL Innovative Education Award 2015
• Fund for the City of New York

Students from Cafeteria Culture's Youth Media for Trash Free Waters Program at MS246 Walt Whitman spoke knowledgeably and passionately at a Press Conference on Flatbush Ave. about plastic street litter. Students explained to community leaders and government officials how this local problem is negatively impacting the health of our oceans, marine wildlife and our seafood chain, then asked for more curbside recycling bins for their neighborhood.

Watch their amazing youth POV #trashfreewaters videos here! Get inspired and take action!
Thank you, US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, for generously funding the Youth Media for Trash Free Waters Program at MS246.

The SORT2SAVE KIT - Cafeteria Ranger Program is hands-on service learning and student leadership in the cafeteria. Students oversee all recycling and sorting on a rotating schedule. All students can participate.
Make your school's zero waste intiative fun - in 8 steps! 

The SORT2SAVE KIT  includes "edu-taing" videos (on YouTube, on Vimeo, or on our S2s video page here->), kid friendly signs, Ranger badges, introduction letter/email templates for teachers and parents, and so much more! 

Brooklyn 8th grade students have been working hard behind the scenes on The Journey of Plastic Litter. They studied the issues, storyboarded their concepts, created artwork for animation, and did a fabulous job editing with charming sound effects!

As part of Cafeteria Culture's Youth Arts + Media for Trash Free Waters Program at MS246 Walt Whitman, in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, students from class 804 created a series of short documentary videos on the local and global issues of plastic marine pollution.

Watch the Journey of Plastic Litter, the first in the series, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel, CafCu Media! We will be posting new #TrashFreeWaters videos all month long. These shorts with their fresh youth-POV are not to be missed!
 
Get inspired then, take action for #TrashFreeWaters. Action Alert on the NYC #BYObag bill here->
Thank you for watching and sharing!

Cafeteria Culture's YOUTH ARTS + MEDIA  for TRASH FREE WATERS School Program (2016) has been generously funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2, Sustainable Materials Management Section, CASD.  Cafeteria Culture is most appreciative  of additional support via our UL Innovative Education Award (2015) and The Fund for the City of New York.

read
A HUGE THANK YOU to City Councilman Brad Lander and Councilwoman Margaret Chin, co-sponsors of the bag bill - INTRO 209A. Thank you to Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, who listened to the informed bag bill opinions of 5th graders from 3 schools in her district during CafCu's roundtable meeting in January, 2015.

Thank you to all of partner teachers and principals, who worked with us on the bag bill curriculum, allowing students to debate this important issue.

Thank you to our donors, volunteers, and funders!

And thank you to Jennie Romer and to all the partner organizations who worked together to get this landmark bill passed, including Citizens Committee for NYC, National Resource Defense Council NYC, New York League of Conservation Voters, BagItNYC.org, NY/NJ BayKeepers, and the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board. Thank you Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Public Advocate Letitia James for your support! 

​UPDATE
The plastic bag industry is not giving up and we need you to take action!
​More on  NYC's bag bill here ->

Drum roll please. The first SORT2save how-to video is here! Create a culture of zero waste in your cafeteria while making change fun - for everyone!

The SORT2save cheer! is a fun and easy way to teach students and staff how to correctly sort food scraps and packaging for a zero waste, healthy future.  Teachers, share with your students. Students, share with your teachers. Share it with everyone!

NEXT UP in the SORT2save (S2s) series:
CAFETERIA RANGERS - YOUR SCHOOL CAN DO IT!

SIGN UP HERE to receive a downloadable PDF of the SORT2save cheer!  lyrics and be the first to know when the next video in the S2s series is posted. 

At school? Watch the SORT2save cheer!  video on Vimeo here ->.
Watch the SORT2save cheer! video on YouTube here ->.