New York City Public Schools PFLD
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NYC Plastic Free Lunch Day
- Find out the next Plastic Free Lunch Day here.
Plastic Free Lunch Day is now every three weeks in all NYC DOE elementary schools.
Cafeteria Culture, in partnership with NYCPS Office of Food & Nutrition Services & Office of Sustainability are keeping Plastic Free Lunch Days going!
Be a part of this exciting national plastic-free action, started by 5th grade students at PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn!
Elementary Schools
Elementary schools are automatically participating in Plastic Free Lunch Day with support of kitchen and cafeteria staff.
Check out the NYCPS PK-8 menus. Lunches should be served without plastic packaging, a huge step towards reducing waste and taking plastic-free action. Please thank your kitchen staff!
Use our free resources to promote NYCPS monthly Plastic Free Lunch Days. Find posters, lesson plans, morning announcements, letter templates, and easy plastic waste audits.
If your kitchen staff is not aware of Plastic Free Lunch Day, please ask the cook in charge to speak with the School Food Service Manager. Ask to partner with the school food service team to implement a full PFLD or begin by reducing specific single use plastic items on Plastic Free Lunch Days and every day! Share the resource page for school food teams and this video.
We also suggest reaching out to your principal for support.
Measure your plastic use and impact with a Plastic Waste Audit
- Single-use PLASTIC SEARCH (easy) – Individual student activity for lunch period with lesson plan. Students collect data from school, home or store-bought lunch to gain understanding of the plastic pollution problem. Complete with teacher notes and Single-Use Plastic SEARCH Worksheet.
K-12 Cafeteria Plastic Reduction
Easy Implementations for one day & every day!
The May 2022 New York Citywide PFLD showed that several easy school food service changes can result in cost savings (see our PFLD Cost-savings Report)
Meet with your school food manager to ask for these changes:
- replace single-use condiment packets with bulk service of sauces/dressings
- wrap sandwiches in bulk (put in serving trays with an aluminum foil cover instead of individually wrapped with plastic film); and
- offer plastic utensils “by request only.”
Announcements & Letter Templates
- Morning Announcements Template (for 5 days leading up to PFLD)
- NYC Letter template to Families for monthly Plastic Free Lunch Days (copy and adapt; for NYC DOE K-8 schools)
- NYC Letter SPANISH template to Families for monthly Plastic Free Lunch Days (copiar y adaptar)
- More Free Resources for K-12 -> movies, morning announcements, letter templates, posters, lessons & activities for teachers, administrators, staff, students, parents
- Resources for School Food Service Teams –>
Middle & High Schools
Middle and high schools kitchens have different types of meal service than elementary schools. You can still reduce the use of plastics by engaging both staff and students.
Middle and high schools kitchens have different types of meal service than elementary schools. You can still reduce the use of plastics by engaging both staff and students.
Here are some tips:
- Host a screening of our award winning movie, Microplastic Madness, available for free all of Mar – Apr, Oct-Nov 2025! Get your link now: https://forms.gle/DoxViqrq8eTg5HF7A
- Encourage students & staff to bring their own reusable bottles & safe reusable cutlery – a raffle or prize can be a good incentive for participation
- Measure your plastic use and impact with a Plastic Waste Audit
- Reduce just one kind of single-use plastic packaging, such as straws or condiment packets (dispense from squeeze bottles or spoon/ladle directly onto plates).
- Lead a “Take Only What You Need” or “Skip the Stuff” campaign. Ask your school food staff to hand out utensils, napkins, and other single-use items by request only, instead of automatically serving with each meal.
- How to Drive Change In Your School Cafeteria – A Guide for High School Students adapted from the work of Gauri Rastogi, high school senior and CafCu Youth Advocate and intern, based on her years of advocating to eliminate styrofoam trays from her school district in MIchigan.
- More ACTION PLAN IDEAS for PFLD ->
Youth-led Action
- Lead a Creative Messaging Campaign!
- For College Students Step by Step College Guide and Survey, Plastic Free Lunch Day and plastic free action ideas for every day!
Why Plastic Free Lunch Day?
US Schools serve 7.35 billion meals annually. Those meals are packed with non-biodegradable Single-use plastics (SUPs) that make a significant contribution to the US plastic waste stream and the staggering global plastic pollution problem. Most of those SUPs end up in a landfill or environment.
Plastic Free Lunch Day provides students an opportunity to learn about plastic pollution and take meaningful plastic-reduction action. One plastic free day leads to another and creates a vision and actionable ideas to move forward equitably and sustainably.
Start a #SkipTheStuff campaign to reduce cafeteria single-use plastic every day!
Learn how students helped to get the NYC “Skip The Stuff” bill passed ->
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