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PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY - a first for NYC schools!

11/25/2018

Cafeteria Culture's first PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY was led by 5th grade students from our PLASTIC FREE WATERS program at PS 15 Patrick F. Daly in Red Hook Brooklyn (May, 2018).

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 PS15 students and Cafeteria Culture to make this possible!

Is your school interested in learning how to lead a Plastic Free Lunch Day? Contact us or sign up for our Cafcu news.
We will be sharing a Plastic Free Lunch Day "how to" very soon as part of our upcoming Plastic Free Waters Toolkit!

200 students speak up at City Hall to ban foam & for plastic-free oceans for World Oceans Day - Take Action!

6/8/2018

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

Cafeteria Rangers talk sorting on WNYC Morning Edition! "It's not about the fame... it's about helping the community and recycling"

4/27/2018

Students from Cafeteria Culture's Cafeteria Ranger Program at PS 188 The Island School were featured on WNYC's Morning Edition for Earth Day!

PS 188 M students interviewed by Shumita Basu for WNYC Morning Edition

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 ->

Do You Really Need a Straw? Take Action for #nostrawnovember

11/19/2017

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.

Ready to start your own campaign?
Download signs and template letter here.

Take Action for #nostrawnovember!
Ask your local juice bars, coffee joints, and restaurants
to join the No Straw Campaign.

Watch "Do you really need a straw?"
- on YouTube: https://youtu.be/k6vYfB6cwX0
- on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/243416042

More #nostrawnovember
inspiration

Watch "The Flaws of Straws - #RefusePlasticStraws ” - created by awesome 8th grade students at MS246 Walt Whitman in East Flatbush, Brooklyn (NYC Department of Education, 2016).
Watch THE FLAWS OF STRAWS on Vimeo here->

Thanks for taking action!

Getting toxic and polluting plastics out of your school cafeteria!

8/21/2017

Most pre-K-12 school administrators will agree that teaching students to recycle and reduce garbage is important. Yet all too often, the message is not consist throughout the school day and it is rarely a school priority.

Plastic trash in the school cafeteria, such as polystyrene (or styrofoam, or foam) trays and plastic “sporks” (or cutlery), is not only an environmental concern, but may actually pose serious health threats to children, either directly through the migration of chemicals to hot food, or indirectly by way of the disposal of plastic trash through incineration (or burning) of garbage.

Watch: "SORT2SAVE Cheer- zero waste cafeteria is almost here!"

The chemical styrene, a major component of polystyrene, is toxic and polluting from the start of manufacturing and forever thereafter. Styrene has been categorized as a “reasonably anticipated to be carcinogen" by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Many studies have shown that styrene leaches from containers into hot food. When styrene containers become litter, they easily end up in our rivers and oceans, continuing to break down into microplastics or tiny bits of toxic-laden plastics that are killing marine wildlife and contaminating our seafood.

In many schools across the U.S., school meals are still served on toxic and polluting styrene foam trays. Yet the long term effects of hot food served daily to children, directly onto trays made of the chemical styrene - sometimes 3 times per day and over a 13-year period - has yet to be studied. And school food can be very hot! To ensure food safety, state health regulations typically require certain school food items be kept at temperatures of 140 degrees or higher while sitting in serving trays in the cafeteria food line.

Of added concern, many children enjoy scraping their foam trays when they are eating with a "spork" or fork, possibly eating small bits of styrene. After a usage time of about 20 minutes, whether incinerated, landfilled, or littered, styrene containers leave a trail of toxic particles that will last forever in the natural environment.

In 2010, after grassroots pressure from parents, the directors of New York City School Food, the largest school food service in the US, serving 860,000 meals per day, made the decision to reduce styrene foam tray usage by initiating Trayless Tuesdays, that resulted in an immediate 20% reduction of foam trays across the city without any additional cost to the city. Several years later, they joined forces with the 5 other largest urban school districts by forming the Urban School Food Alliance to collectively-purchase and drive down the cost of a new compostable plate. As of the fall of 2015, these 6 cities combined have completely eliminated half a billion foam trays per year from landfills., incinerators and student meals across the US.

If your school is still serving school meals on foam trays, this is a perfect time to focus on plastic-free and zero waste initiatives. It can, however, be challenging to bring busy school administrators and school food and custodial staff on board.

Starting a student-led Cafeteria Ranger program is a great first step for reducing school food and packaging garbage, while gaining school-wide buy-in. Separating post-lunch recyclables and garbage with students as the leaders is an excellent way for the entire school community to visualize the amounts of resources and potential resources versus trash though a daily ritual that benefits both the school and community (watch “SORT2SAVE cheer - zero waste cafeteria is almost here”).

This can also create a powerful domino effect, sparking interest in plastic-free campaigns, such as plastic water-bottle bans, and plastic straw-free schools. It can even inspire student-led plastic-free advocacy and youth-made plastic free waters video campaigns that reach far beyond the school!

Watch: "A Message from 8th grade filmmakers in Brooklyn about plastic litter - #SaveACritter"

Students from PS 34 Manhattan, speaking with Ny City Council Members at City Hall plastic bag bill rally,

Watch: "SORT2SAVE Cheer- zero waste cafeteria is almost here!" - watch on YouTube or on Vimeo here.

New Video: Kids in Tokyo & NYC Share a Message About Marine Litter

6/5/2017

We are thrilled to share our first international school project, captured in this inspiring documentary short. This is a perfect video to watch and share for World Oceans Day (June 8)!

Watch Tokyo & NYC Kids Share a Message About Marine Litter, directed and edited by Cafeteria Culture's award winning Media Director, Atsuko Quirk, and produced by Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Fourth grade students from PS15 Patrick F. Daly Elementary School in Red Hook, Brooklyn and Hirai Elementary School in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo worked simultaneously on reducing local plastic litter that contributes to a global plastic marine pollution plight.

Watch this video and let these passionate 4th graders in Tokyo and NYC inspire you to take action to reduce single-use plastics!

Then make your tax deductible donation to Cafeteria Culture! Help us to bring more cutting edge, culturally rich environmental education to underserved youth.

While President Trump was making the decision to abandon the Paris climate agreement, signed by nearly 200 countries, our Tokyo-NYC project students from Red Hook, Brooklyn -- a community devastated by Superstorm Sandy -- were taking climate-smart action, then sharing local knowledge and efforts with project-partners living opposite sides of the globe! These students gained valuable insight by learning from their young Tokyo project partners, participating in an international exchange of ideas about local, upstream solutions for a complex and escalating global plight of plastic marine pollution.

Cafeteria Culture needs your support now more than ever. The last two years, a significant portion of our school programming was funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2. We are not counting on this funding for the 2017-18 school year.
We need your donation of any size to continue to bring innvovative and collaborative environmental and civic education to underserved NYC youth!

Watch Tokyo & NYC Kids Share a Message About Marine Litter

On YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ta70uqmiKDc
On Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/219166104
Or just watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/_39ovv-y2fc

Thank you for giving the gift of innovative environmental education to New York City's underserved youth!
And thank you for watching and sharing!
#SaveOurOcean #AAOPlasticFree

What teachers say about Cafeteria Culture's creative environmental education

12/29/2016

Watch our latest video!
What Teachers Say About Cafeteria Culture's Creative Environmental Education

Cafeteria Culture is teaching creative storytelling through the visual arts, performing arts, and video production that is merged with citizen science and civic engagement. Our programs are giving underserved New York City youth a voice on urgent environmental issues.

Taught in partnership with classroom teachers, our environmental education programs empower students with the skills of collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and participatory democracy. Students then engage local, national, and international audiences with their creative and informed youth-made messaging and videos.

Watch this video and find out what teachers are saying about our unique environmental education programs!

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 here - a stop motion /live action video from PS/MS34 M 5th graders - find out how local plastic street litter contributes to our global marine pollution plight

12/5/2016

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

Your tax deductible donation brings Environmental STEM education with arts, media and leadership to more underserved students in NYC schools. Please give what you can and give. generously

Lights, Camera, Civic Action!

11/21/2016

PS/MS34 M students presented their LITTER MONSTERS stop motion animation video and explained how the Cafeteria Ranger program works to Chinese delegates during their visit to NYC (November 11, 2016)

Our students are leaders!

Cafeteria Culture and our students from PS/MS 34 M were honored to be asked by the US State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency to showcase our work to a group of 10 delegates from China. The group visited NYC as part of a joint US-China effort to reduce marine litter pollution. After touring wastewater treatment plants and recycling facilities, the delegates visited with two local community organizations, including Cafeteria Culture.

Our student leaders charmed the visitors, sharing their point of view on upstream, youth-based solutions for reducing plastic street litter and keeping it out of our oceans. They also presented the premier screening of ,"LITTER MONSTERS," their stop-motion/live action student-made short, coming soon to YouTube!

Our students are concerned advocates!

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.

MS 246 Walt Whitman alumni from Cafeteria Culture's Youth Media Trash Free Waters program (Nerlande and Shazia pictured in the front) spoke at a Brooklyn Press Conference with NY City Councilmember Eugene, NYC Department of Sanitation officials, and Flatbush community leaders and business owners (June, 2016)

SORT2SAVE kit is here! Start a Cafeteria Ranger program today with our online toolkit. It's FREE!

9/25/2016

Have you been wanting to start a school cafeteria recycling program but can't get past the first step? We know the chaallenges and we have the perfect resource, SORT2save.org. It's fun, it's free and now is an excellent time of the school year of to start a student-led Cafeteria Ranger program.
Get started with these 8 steps!

SORT2save school cafeteria recylcing and composting

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!

SORT2save how-to videos

Watch the SORT2save how-to videos YouTube here!

Here are just a few of the benefits that typically result from a Cafeteria Ranger program:
- A significant reduction of your school's cafeteria garbage due to improved sorting
- Increased awareness of the benefits of recycling, composting, and reduction
- Provides new leadership pportunities for students during school meal time
- Saves custodian and school food staff labor time by reducing the overall number of bags being pulled from garbage and recycling bins
- Fewer plastic bags are used, whih means saving money and resources, as well as reducing the amount of plastic that is going to landfills and incinerators
- A cleaner cafeteria floor, which saves custodians and school food staff time
- Improvement of the overall quality of the cafeteria experience
- An excellent starting point that leads to infusing a zero waste culture school wide!

Get started at SORT2save.org!

Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) is a Project of The Fund for the City of New York, a charitable organization.
Founded in 2009 as Styrofoam Out of Schools.
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

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VISION
We envision a 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.
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