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“I presented all of the Cafeteria Rangers materials to our Safety Committee (many of whom do lunch duty), Parent Association, Head Custodian, and some administration. Without hesitation, I was able to get them on board! We discussed and worked out some potential problems that might arise. The next morning I created four sorting stations and got the sorting ball rolling. Within minutes of standing at a station during breakfast I had students asking ‘What is going on?’ and if they could help. They jumped right in and made sure that breakfast was sorted correctly. Sorting during breakfast went smooth. Next was lunch, which made me a bit nervous as the crowds are bigger. During lunch, many of the School Aides asked if they could have a few of their students help at the stations. Over three lunch periods, we reduced our trash to 1/4 of a can and our recycling of metal, glass, and plastics to ma

• How many bags of cafeteria garbage there are per day?
• How many trips do you make to the curbside?
• How much time does it takes to clean the floor after lunch?

• What’s the hardest part of your job?
• How do you get students dismissed from the cafeteria in an orderly and efficient way?
• Are students cleaning up after themselves?

• How many meals are served per day?
• Do students say “thank you” when you serve them?
• How much time is there between each lunch period?

Here are just a few of the benefits that can 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 opportunities 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, which 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!

• Take photos!
• How many garbage bins and bags are used?
• How do the Cafeteria Aides and staff operate during lunch periods?
• How long does each lunch period last?
• How much time is there in between lunch periods?
• What are the “traffic patterns” (the flow of student movement)?

• Data is powerful tool for change! 
• A waste audit is an excellent way to involve students and teachers with hands-on STEM learning
• Simple “before” and “after” photos that visually show amounts of garbage can be powerful images for getting the entire of the school on board
• A detailed audit with “before” and “after” weights of garbage, recyclables, liquids, and compostables can be used to advocate for school and district-wide change

• Work with your administration and key players to collectively decide upon an the perfect Launch Day for your Cafeteria Ranger Program.
• Plan ahead. Pick a day that will allow you time the day before the Launch to get all the preparation work done.
• Check out the school food menu and choose a day with as little packaging as possible. Make the first day of sorting easy.
• Try not launch on a Monday.  The first day of the week is a good day to check that everything is in order and to remind everyone about Launch Day.

• Have students make original signage to publicize the LAUNCH DAY.
• Present the Cafeteria Ranger Program at a school wide assembly.
• Make the Launch Day into a challenge!
• Announce the Cafeteria Ranger Program during all lunch periods.
• Announce the Cafeteria Ranger Program during school-wide morning announcements.
• Ask teachers to get students excited about the Cafeteria Ranger Launch Day by talking about it regularly during morning meetings.

This is an excellent way to share details of the program with teachers and parents. The editable Microsoft Word documents below are designed to be personalized. Consider sending these as emails.

• One class in each lunch period is assigned as the Cafeteria Ranger class for one month. Cafeteria Ranger classes rotate month by month. Every student will have the chance to be a leader.
• One adult needs to be the Ranger Coordinator (it can be any adult) in charge of scheduling, Sign-up Sheets and Badges. Once a month, she/he distributes Sign-up Sheets to the teachers of the next Cafeteria Ranger classes.
• The teachers assign their students to weekly shifts, filling in 2 copies of the sign-up sheet.
• One copy of the Sign-up Sheet stays in the classroom and the other copy gets posted in the cafeteria.
• Before a class becomes a Ranger class for the first time, the classroom teacher explains the Ranger Jobs and Ranger Etiquette to the entire class. 
• Teachers continue to review Job Descriptions and assignments regularly during the entire month of Class Ranger Duty.
• During the lunch period, the Rangers get to be first on the food line so that they have enough time to eat their lunch before starting their jobs.
• The Rangers work the last 5-7 minutes of their own lunch period. When the lunch period is over, the Rangers take off their gloves and head back to the classroom.

• You can download a PDF version of “HERE’S HOW THE RANGER SCHEDULE WORKS” that includes more details for Steps 4 and 5.
• There are 2 versions of the Cafeteria Ranger Sign-up Sheets , one for NYC schools with Organics (compost) Collection and one for schools without.
• There is no preview for the editable Yearlong Schedule Template. It will download as soon as you click on the image.
• All KIT downloads can be found one a single webpage here.