School Food Service

Join us November 17th – 21st, 2025
or any day!

​Schools everywhere are invited.

Join New York City, Chicago, Miami Dade, Baltimore, and hundreds of schools across the US for Plastic Free Lunch Day! Over 3,000 schools across the country participated in PFLD in November 2024.

Is your school/school district on board? Choose one easy action for this spring and start planning for a fall Plastic Free Lunch Day

Easy Implementations for one day & every day:

  1. replace single-use condiment packets with bulk service of sauces/dressings
  2. wrap sandwiches in bulk (put in serving trays with an aluminum foil cover instead of individually wrapped with plastic film)
  3. offer plastic utensils “by request only.”

​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.
​​ Or run a small pilot, Plastic Free Lunch Day or Plastic Reduction Day, in just a few schools any time this spring. 

Why

​US Schools serve 7.35 billion meals annually.  These 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 these SUPs end up in a landfill or environment.  Plastic Free Lunch Day (PFLD) USA provides an opportunity for students to learn about plastic pollution and for students and school food staff to take meaningful plastic-reduction action. 

One plastic free day leads to another!

Join us in creating a vision for an equitable and sustainable future.

Picture

Resource Checklist

​Promotion and Communication

Social made easy: 

Movie/ Video inspiration for students, teachers, staff and families!

More Resources for Cost Savings

Menu Ideas

Sample Menu for Plastic Free Lunch Day (see photos below)

Snapshot
 🌮 a handheld food day -> no plastic utensils!
 + 🥒 sliced veggies + dip Salad Bar 
💚 a no-condiment packet day -> serve in bottles

Picture

San Diego Unified School District will eliminate as much single-use plastic with no sporks

  • Dipper bar at all salad bars districtwide will include- celery sticks, carrot sticks, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices and broccoli florets. Dipping sauces to include Ranch and Italian dressing, homemade salsas and dressings encouraged. Fresh fruit to include seasonal cut fruit and HOTM, no canned fruit will be served on this day.
  • Veggie burger will be offered in place of prepackaged salads at secondary sites.
The  NYC Plastic Free Lunch Day menu served on May 16, 2022 was all handheld food: pizza, accompanied by a crudité style Salad Bar, and
fresh fruit; no utensils needed (see the Menu Preparation video below).

Other ideas for a plastic free, handheld menu include:

mozzarella sticks
tacos, burritos
egg rolls
burgers

Additionally:

  • no condiment packets; dipping sauce and dressing is in squeeze bottles or served directly onto the plate.
  • sandwiches served without being individually wrapped in plastic film (prepared and served bulk style in trays with aluminum foil covers;
  • utensils given “by request only”
  • water cups are also “by request only.”
Picture
NYC public schools now serve a monthly “Plastic Free Lunch” menu, including Mozzarella Sticks with marinara sauce, Roasted Fresh Broccoli and Cauliflower Garlic Knot.
Picture
If your schools are still using styrofoam trays, these paper boats are a cost neutral alternative for non-saucy menus.

Preparation Tips Video

Training video for kitchen staff – created for May 16th, 2022 NYC PFLD

Plastic Free Lunch Day – Menu Preparation & Tips for Kitchen Staff
​Created by CafeteriaCulture.org in partnership with NYC Department of Education Office of Food and Nutrition Services and Office of Sustainability. This video shows you how to prepare the PLASTIC FREE LUNCH DAY MENU that was served to over 750 elementary schools on Monday May 16th, 2022.

Jump to each part, as listed below.
00:38 PIZZA
02:01 PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY or SUNFLOWER BUTTER SANDWICHES
04:50 CHEESE SANDWICHES
07:04 BROCCOLI
08:36 ORANGES
09:58 SALAD BAR

Picture
Picture
Picture

Single-use Plastic​ Pollution Problem in a snapshot

Why Do we need #plasticfreelunch?


The world is awash in toxic and polluting single-use plastics made from hazardous chemicals that are contaminating our ecosystems, our communities and our bodies.

380 million metric tons of plastic are produced each year.
The US plastic recycling rate has dropped below 6%!

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 Lunch Day leads to another and creates a vision and actionable ideas to move forward in a just and sustainable way.

10 reasons to take plastic free action
  • Making & disposing of plastic is fueling extreme weather events.
  • Plastics are made from fossil fuels.
  • Plastics are the 5th largest contributor of harmful gas emissions.
  • Less than 6% of plastic is recycled in the US.
  • Plastic kills 100,000 marine animals every year.
  • The US creates more plastic waste than any other nation.
  • Plastic never goes away. It degrades into micro and nanoplastics.
  • Scientists have found micro and nanoplastics in the deepest parts of the ocean, and in our soil, food, water and air.
  • Recent studies have also found micro and nanoplastics in our bodies: our gut, our tissues, our poop, our blood, the deepest parts of our lungs!
  • We are all eating and breathing microplastics.
What is a Single-Use Plastic and Why is it a Problem?

Each year, we produce over 350 million metric tons of plastic; more than 40% of this is single-use plastic–plastic packaging and foodware that is used for less than 20 minutes. Because plastic is not recyclable, most discarded plastic is sent to landfills or “leaks” into the natural environment.

Plastic does not biodegrade. Instead it breaks or fragments into small particles called microplastics and then into smaller particles called nanoplastics. Because plastic is made from fossil fuels and thousands of persistent toxic chemicals, they transfer thousands of migrating chemicals into our food during use. After disposal and fragmentation, plastic particles carry and distribute these toxic chemicals to every inch of the globe.

​Scientists have found micro and nanoplastics in our digestive tract, deep in our lung tissue, in the placenta, and circulating in our blood. Nanoplastics deliver thousands of toxic chemicals directly to the organs, tissues, and cells in our bodies. We now face the public health crisis of our time.

School cafeterias serve over 40 million meals a day and make a large contribution to the plastic waste stream. School cafeterias are a great place to begin reducing single-use plastics, while also protecting the health of our students–society’s most vulnerable members. Plastic free lunch day is a first step that results in useful photos and data but, most importantly, it shows everyone that food dispensing and eating does not require plastic!

Share this:

Join The Movement

Support Our Work

Your donation helps provide free youth leadership opportunities to under-resourced schools.

Follow Us

Stay connected with Cafeteria Culture on your favorite platform.