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 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
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:
Announcements & Letter Templates
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:
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.
Learn how students helped to get the NYC “Skip The Stuff” bill passed ->
