Please Donate
We depend on your donation to keep the education & action going!​


​
​Cafeteria Culture has taken the lead,
innovating K-12 
​zero waste/climate education
for over a decade.
Our programs are infused with science, data collection,
​media production, civics and youth-led solutions that lead
​to systemic and institutional change!
​
Cafeteria Culture is a partner project of the
Fund for the City of New York.
​Your donation is eligible for charitable deductions
under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.
Charity Navigator Four-Star Rating

Our Impact

  • Styrofoam Out Of Schools campaign, initiated by CafCu in 2009, resulted in NYC and 15 other major urban school districts eliminating styrofoam entirely from public school cafeterias, keeping half a billion styrofoam trays per year out of landfills, incinerators, and student meals. This also led to NYC’s styrofoam ban enacted in 2020, NY state’s ban enacted in 2021 and paved the way for the composting program across all NYC public schools.

  • Plastic Free Lunch Day, started by CafCu and fifth grade students, and building upon Styrofoam Out of Schools campaign, is being implemented monthly in NYC’s 750 elementary schools and is a national biannual event in urban school districts including Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Dallas, San Diego and NYC, reaching millions across the country, significantly reducing single use plastic and increasing awareness about the plastic pollution crisis.

  • Microplastic Madness, our award winning, student-led documentary - has reached over 100,000 people in 45 countries and 32 US states, with over 400 Q+A sessions across the world– from China to Switzerland– encouraging subsequent action. 
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Your donation supports our programs in
under-resourced NYC schools and schools across the US.
With schools as hubs for change, students are taking the lead
to reduce food and plastic waste from school cafeterias and communities
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Fifth graders from PS 188 The Island School interview farmers at the Union Square farmers' market, NYC, Oct 2022
​Help us grow our
Plastic Free Lunch Day campaign!
Coming again on
Nov 8th, 2023 and April, 2024

May 2018 - the first Plastic Free Lunch Day, spearheaded by 56 students in Cafeteria Culture's program at PS 15 in Brooklyn.
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May 2022 - the first NY City-wide Plastic Free Lunch day in 750 elementary schools; students were served lunch without plastic!
Nov 2022 - the first national Plastic Free Lunch day with Dallas, San Diego, Baltimore City, Los Angeles, DeKalb County GA, Philadelphia, NYC, and schools across the US, in partnership with the Urban School Food Alliance
abc7 news:​Students from Red Hook create
​Plastic Free Lunch Day, schools participate nationwide  

​Our approach to zero waste, environmental justice and climate change education is unique across the board. We:​
  • Partner with students facing extreme hardship and who are the most dependent on the public school food system. Our approach gives them the opportunity to share their viewpoints and novel solutions as experts on issues from first hand experience that adults and the “system” often miss. 
  • Teach interdisciplinary zero waste/climate/environmental justice classroom curricula combined with place-based learning in the cafeteria, the community, and City Hall, framed with 21st Century learning skills of critical thinking, real-world problem solving, collaboration, media literacy, and global awareness
  • Collect and analyze waste audit data, working collaboratively with students, that they then use – combined with their personal stories – to convince decision makers to make change (e.g. school food directors, New York City Council).
  • Teach media production and storytelling as part of zero waste/climate education, providing platforms for students to share their findings, personal narratives, and unique solutions to decision makers and the public.
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Learn more about MICROPLASTIC MADNESS ->

Cafeteria Culture's award winning movie,
MICROPLASTIC MADNESS is a springboard for youth action,
linking two of the most critical issues of our time,
plastic pollution and the climate crisis.
​
Your donation makes it possible for us
to share the movie and free educational resources
with schools and communities everywhere!
​
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Click here to make a tax deductible donation
​If you prefer to make a donation by check,
 mail your check to:
    Cafeteria Culture
    c/o Fund for the City of New York
    121 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor
    New York, NY 10013- 1590
         Attention: Fahmida Alam
(Please write "Cafeteria Culture" in the memo line.)​
Your support makes what we do possible!

MISSION
Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) is working creatively with youth to achieve equitable zero waste, and climate-smart school communities and a plastic free biosphere. We teach innovative environmental education that fosters youth-led solutions on critical sustainability issues, merging citizen science, civic action, video production and the arts. Students in our programs, overwhelmingly from lower income communities of color, are providing an urgently needed voice on environmental justice and waste equity (see our YouTube Channel, Cafcu Media (72K subscribers and 34 million views).

Watch: What Teachers Say About Cafeteria Culture's Creative Environmental Education
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Thank you to all of our your generous donors! 
CafCu Donors and Partners ->
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Musician and activist, Jack Johnson, with Cafeteria Culture Executive Director/Founder - Debby Lee Cohen and fabulous intern, Christine Herman-Velazquez (Brooklyn, 2014). The Johnson Ohana Foundation, founded by Kim and Jack Johnson to support environmental, art, and music education, has been supporting Cafeteria Culture's educational programs since 2010!