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Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) students from PS 188 The Island School in Manhattan's Lower East Side were thrilled for the opportunity to testify at the NYC Council "Skip The Stuff" (Int 0559) hearing today! The 5th grade class won over the hearts of the City Council Members and advocates with their informed and inspirational testimony. These 5th graders are studying plastic pollution as part of our school program at PS188M. They have been collecting local plastic data on the beach and in their school cafeteria; exchanging data and cultural practices with students in Okinawa, Japan to gain a global perspective of the plastic problem; interviewing school staff; and sharing ideas to reduce single-use plastic with NYC school food directors, who are listening!
CafCu Youth Advocates, Rebeca Sabnam and Megan Ortiz, joined the #SkipTheStuff Rally beforehand on the steps of City Hall! and testified in-person with powerful and poetic points! Rebeca, who was a student in our program in 5th grade and now a sophomore at columbia University, has previously testified at City Hall in support of equitable waste reduction legislation, including the styrofoam ban, fees for plastic bags, and universal composting, Megan's testimony, which was presented as spoken word, was an eloquent first-hand poetic account of the wasteful practices and cost of unnecessary (compostable) plastic utensil use in the food service business. (read Megan's testimony ->). If passed, the "Skip The Stuff" Int 0559 will require restaurants, food delivery services,and online delivery platforms to provide single-use utensils, condiments, and napkins by customer request only. This bill is a money saver for restaurants & will reduce single-use plastic pollution that contaminates our air, water, soil and bodies. Let's get the Skip The Stuff bill passed!  Rebeca Sabnam, Cafeteria Culture Youth Advocate and Columbia University sophomore, speaking at the Skip The Stuff rally with NYC Councilmembers Erik Bottcher and Marjorie Velázquez, co-sponsors of the bill, and advocates from NRDC, Surfrider, Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board, ReusableNYC coalition, businesses, and others (NY City Hall, Dec. 12, 2022; photo CafeteriaCulture.org
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Plastic Free Lunch Day USA is coming November 2nd!
Cafeteria Culture and Urban School Food Alliance (USFA) invite you to join New York City, Dallas, San Diego and other USFA members – 18 of the nation’s largest school districts – for the first ever Plastic Free Lunch Day USA! We are so proud of our 5th grade students from PS 15 Brooklyn who started the very first Plastic Free Lunch Day (PFLD), documented in our movie, Microplastic Madness. Their advocacy and actions led to a NYC-wide PFLD and now this next groundbreaking plastic-free day to take place across the entire US! We hope your school/organization will join us in supporting this student-driven action by leading your own Plastic Free Lunch Day or any plastic free action on November 2, 2022! We show you how->
Get started with our free PFLD guides, lesson plans, activities, flyers, and a free Microplastic Madness screening (offer good thru Nov 23, 2022 for K-12 public schools).
Learn more: plasticfreelunch.org Together, on a single day, we will eliminate or reduce single-use plastic foodware in school cafeterias across the US to protect student health and the environment. Will you be joining us on Nov. 2nd? Share your plastic free lunch action plan to inspire others! We'll add your school/district/organization to our website as a PFLD Participant and share additional resources. 
Many thanks to all who participated in the successful May 2022 Plastic Free Lunch Day (PFLD).
Our collective actions sparked more plastic free actions:
 It's possible! The very first first New York City-wide Plastic Free Lunch Day (May 16, 2022) was a huge success. We now know that plastic-free school food service is possible! Over 750 NYC public elementary schools were served school lunch with NO plastic. This is a #plasticfree victory for NYC students! Read our Press Release ->. See the News 12 segment ->. Plastic Free Lunch Day was the result of years of collaborative effort led by Cafeteria Culture in partnership with NYC DOE Office of Food & Nutrition Services and Office of Sustainability and students! What's next?
What can you do at your school tomorrow? Ask your school food manager to:
Lead a plastic free campaign to:
More Plastic Free Lunch Action resources -> Together, we can dramatically reduce single-use plastics from school cafeterias in NYC, the US, and across the globe! Share your plastic free lunch photos and ideas with us on social media: Twitter @CafeteriaCu IG @CafCu FB CafeteriaCulture TikTok @CafeteriaCu #plasticfreelunch #cafcu If you missed our short Plastic Free Lunch Day overview video, you can watch it here.
May 16 is Plastic Free Lunch Day in all NYC public school!
School lunches will be prepared without plastic in over 750 NYC elementary schools! Cafeteria Culture and NYC Department of Education Office of Food and Nutrition Services, Office of Sustainability and students are leading this first New York City-wide Plastic Free Lunch Day Press Release -> Started by students! Schools & communities everywhere, join the action! **Reduce plastic waste from school, home, and store-bought lunch. #plasticfreelunch ⬇︎Watch⬇︎ See how NYC schools are doing it! Are ready to take zero waste/climate action in your school and just aren't not sure where to start? Watch our award winning movie, MICROPLASTIC MADNESS, streaming for free on our YouTube channel, CafCu Media, August 26-29. Then sign up to host a screening and Q+A at your school, work place, or with a community group! Teachers, our "MICROPLASTIC MADNESS TOOLKIT - curriculum for a plastic free future" is coming this fall, 2021! Watch the movie and then sign-up to receive the Toolkit! Access many of the lessons and activities that are portrayed in the movie and so much more!  Join us on March 17th - MICROPLASTIC MADNESS screening @ Socially Relevant Film Festival NY3/6/2020 MARCH 17th See our award winning documentary NYC Festival Premier! MICROPLASTIC MADNESS Now in 15 film festivals, received 3 awards, and showing in 24 cities around the world!  Lang Auditorium - Hunter College CUNY (entrance at 69th Street between Lex & Park Ave; North Building, 4th Floor/HN 424) Tickets -> Hunter College students - RSVP for FREE admission! (limited # of tickets) -> NOTE: NO TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR Q&A following with movie Co-Directors/Producers Atsuko Quirk & Debby Lee Cohen, students from the movie, and the production team!   THANK YOU to the entire PS 15 Patrick F Daly school community, New York City Department of Education, and to all of our supporters for helping us to create this movie and share this TAKE ACTION story!
Watch the trailer and read about the Impact campaign: www.microplasticmadness.org  -->Skip to our "Plastic Free Lunch Day" page -> and get ready for Plastic Free Lunch Day USA on Nov 2, 2022! In May 2018, 56 fifth grade students from our PLASTIC FREE WATERS program at PS 15 Patrick F. Daly in Red Hook Brooklyn, led the PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY in a New York City public school. That day and all the events that led up to it are documented in our award winning movie, "Microplastic Madness." After leading street and beach litter surveys, students turned to the school cafeteria to measure their own plastic usage and waste. Working with their School Food manager and supervisor, students proposed a plan to test out a school lunch day with as little single-use packaging as possible. There was only one pound of trash at the end of all lunch periods (a 99% diversion rate) and zero trash from the kitchen! A huge thank you to the amazing School Food Staff who worked with PS 15 K students and Cafeteria Culture to make this possible! Is your school interested in learning how to lead a Plastic Free Lunch Day?
UPDATE: Join us on Nov 2 for Plastic Free Lunch Day USA! Cafeteria Culture and Urban School Food Alliance (USFA) are partnering up for this national day to reduce plastic packaging in public school cafeterias and to protect student health and the Environment. www,plasticfreelunch.org On May 16, 2022, Cafeteria Culture in partnership with NYC public schools led the first citywide PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY! Over 750 NYC elementary school cafeterias had school lunch prepared without plastic, providing a first glimpse of a plastic-free school cafeteria future. This initiative was started by Brooklyn PS 15 fifth grade students who advocated for this citywide day!    For World Oceans Day, 200 students, many from Cafeteria Culture's Plastic Free Waters program, gathered at City Hall to share their research on toxic and polluting plastic foam (commonly called "styrofoam") and to urge New York City Council to ban foam! Students were joined by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and four Council Members, who urged all New York City Council Members to take action to reduce plastic marine pollution by voting "yes" on Intro-135, the bill to ban plastic foam. For World Oceans Day, be inspired by these students to take acton!   Sharon (pictured above) displayed a jar of polystyrene microplastics, tiny, toxic bits of foam plastic that were collected at Valentino Pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Sharon and PS 15 K fifth grade students studied plastic marine pollution for 2 years as part of Cafeteria Culture's Plastic Free Waters program. Lessons included: surveying of local street and beach litter; studying degradation of single-use plastics; life cycle analysis of various plastic types; designing creative messaging for community outreach to reduce plastic litter; and using student collected data to inform local policy. Plastic foam is one of the most common types of plastic pollution (Ocean Conservancy, 2016) and 80% of marine litter originates on land. Plastic foam pollution easily breaks up into tiny, toxic pieces that are entering our local waterways at alarming rates.  Once in our waters, foam microplastics act like sponges, taking up chemical pollutants, such as pesticides, that make these tiny bits even more toxic. Then they can be eaten by marine organisms as small as microscopic plankton, the base of our food chain, or as large as giant filter feeding whales. Plastic foam is made from styrene and benzene, both petroleum based chemicals. Styrene is a known animal carcinogen and found "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen" by the National Toxicology Program and "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In 2013, the NYC Council already voted “yes” to ban foam, but two industry-funded lawsuits have blocked this law from taking effect. These young advocates made their voices heard for plastic-free oceans and a healthy future for marine wildlife and humans of all ages! TAKE ACTION! Call your NYC Council Member and urge her/him to vote "yes" for INTRO-135, the bill to ban plastic foam. Please be sure that they will not accept the phony, industry-backed foam recycling bill as a solution. Learn more ->  Featured in NewsDeeply, today, June 8, 2018, for World Oceans Day, PS 51 M students at the Youth Rally to ban foam, NY City Hall, co-hosted by Council Member Brad Lander and Cafeteria Culture  Students from Cafeteria Culture's Cafeteria Ranger Program at PS 188 The Island School were featured on WNYC's Morning Edition for Earth Day!  From WNYC.org reporter, Shumita Basu: "I like it because we're helping the universe and we're being responsible." It's a tall order for a Friday, but Damien Otero, a third grader at PS 188 on the Lower East Side, speaks with conviction as he points to the composting bin in his school cafeteria. Otero is a Cafeteria Ranger, one of several lunchroom leaders who helps their fellow students throw their trash away into the appropriate sorted bin. "Our model really is to innovate, pilot, and then share it for free, so schools that don’t have resources can take advantage of it," said Cohen. It's not as simple as setting up a five-bin station in any cafeteria. Cafeteria Culture outreach director Rhonda Keyser said when they first arrive at a school, they start by teaching the students Garbology 101, which Keyser described as "the journey of our garbage and the environmental injustice along the way." The kids also learn about the importance of sorting waste correctly, so that recyclables end up in a recycling center and organic waste can be turned into compost.  Shumita Basu interviewing PS 188 M 6th grader Marilyn Marilyn Otero (pictured above), a sixth grader, has started noticing environmentally negligent behavior outside of her school, as well. "When I walk outside, I see there’s a whole bunch of bottles and plastic bags everywhere in the streets. When it rains, it pushes all that trash down that drain, and that’s how it ends up in the pipes and water," Otero said. "People litter a lot." Otero says her family is going to start recycling at home, now that she's learned about sorting waste at school. Read and listen to the full segment on WNYC.org -> Americans use 500 million plastic straws per day, which is enough to circle the world 2 1/2 times. Watch "Do you really need a straw?" and take action! Way too many plastic straws end up as litter in our oceans, threatening marine wildlife, degrading into tiny toxic microplastics, and then returning to us via our seafood and table salt. YUK! Students from Cafeteria Culture's school programs have been conducting street and beach litter surveys for the past 3 years. They find straw litter all over NYC - straws that easily wash from storm drains directly into our waterways on rainy days. 
Thanks for taking action!
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Our VISION
We envision a plastic free, equitable zero waste future where landfill and incinerator garbage as we know it no longer exists;
where post consumption waste from food to packaging is drastically reduced
and what remains benefits our schools, communities, and the environment.
Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) is a Project of The Fund for the City of New York, a 501(c)(3) organization.
As such, your donations to Cafeteria Culture are eligible for charitable deductions under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.
Cafeteria Culture is a vendor of New York City Department of Education via Fund for the City of New York
Copyright © 2023 Cafeteria Culture
DONATE | ABOUT |MICROPLASTIC MADNESS|PLASTIC FREE LUNCH| Take Action Toolkits|EVENTS
Youth Advocates |Contact
Twitter @CafeteriaCu IG @CafCu FB CafeteriaCulture TikTok @CafeteriaCu
Our VISION
We envision a plastic free, equitable zero waste future where landfill and incinerator garbage as we know it no longer exists;
where post consumption waste from food to packaging is drastically reduced
and what remains benefits our schools, communities, and the environment.
Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) is a Project of The Fund for the City of New York, a 501(c)(3) organization.
As such, your donations to Cafeteria Culture are eligible for charitable deductions under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.
Cafeteria Culture is a vendor of New York City Department of Education via Fund for the City of New York
Copyright © 2023 Cafeteria Culture