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Plastic Free Lunch Day in NYC schools, a huge success!

5/19/2022

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?
Ideas from students:

Plastic Free Lunch Day every day
Plastic Free Lunch Day for the entire USA

What can you do at your school tomorrow?
Ask your school food manager to:

Provide dressings and condiments in bulk (no more individual packages - switch to reusable bottles & serve sauces directly on plates)
Make Pizza days plastic-free always!
Wrap sandwiches in bulk rather than individually every day
Utensils by "request only" every day
Burger and burrito days - plastic free too!

Lead a plastic free campaign to:

Encourage plastic-free home and store bought lunch -make signs and educate
Promote reusables & refillables - a Bring Your Own campaign for water bottles, utensils, napkins

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!

What are your suggestion? Share your 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.

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Plastic Free Lunch Day, Get Ready, NYC Schools!

5/12/2022

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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!

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MICROPLASTIC MADNESS - free back-to-school screening, Aug 26-29, 2021

8/17/2021

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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!

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Join us on March 17th - MICROPLASTIC MADNESS screening @ Socially Relevant Film Festival NY

3/6/2020

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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

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PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY - a first for NYC schools!

11/25/2018

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Cafeteria Culture's first PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY was the brainchild of 56 fifth 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 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?

Learn more about Plastic Free Lunch Day here ->
Sign up to host a screening of our award winning movie, MICROPLASTIC MADNESS, which documents how 56 fifth graders lead New York City's first NYC Plastic Free Lunch Day pilot at their school.

UPDATE: May 13, 2022-May 16 is PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY in all NYC public schools! NYC. Over 750 NYC elementary school cafeterias will have 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!

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

6/8/2018

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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

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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

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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 ->

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

11/19/2017

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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!

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Getting toxic and polluting plastics out of your school cafeteria!

8/21/2017

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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.

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

6/5/2017

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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 innovative 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

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Plastic Free Lunch Day in NYC schools, a huge success!

Plastic Free Lunch Day, Get Ready, NYC Schools!

MICROPLASTIC MADNESS - free back-to-school screening, Aug 26-29, 2021

Join us on March 17th - MICROPLASTIC MADNESS screening @ Socially Relevant Film Festival NY

PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY - a first for NYC schools!

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

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

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

More #nostrawnovember
inspiration

Getting toxic and polluting plastics out of your school cafeteria!

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

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