NYC Green Schools

Earlier this summer District of Columbia school officials decided to ban chocolate milk from their schools.  NYC Green Schools has proposed that New York City schools also get rid of chocolate milk as the daily consumption of sweetened drinks has no place in a child’s diet.  Proponents of flavored milk argue it’s the only way to get students to drink milk, which provides the calcium, protein and vitamin D children need.  But as Chef Ann Cooper has pointed out, “Saying we need to add sugar and flavoring to milk to get kids to drink it is like saying we need to feed kids apple pie if they don’t like apples.”

Here’s the truth about the chocolate milk served daily to NYC school children: it contains 22 grams of sugar, which is more sugar than half a can of coke, and it is sweetened with high-fructose corn-syrup which is listed as the second ingredient.  With 40% of NYC children either overweight or obese, why does the Department of Education’s Office of School Food still insist on chocolate milk, especially in light of its recent decision to eliminate Snapple drinks from school vending machines because of the irrefutable evidence linking the increased consumption of sugary drinks with the rising rates of childhood obesity?  One School Food official admitted to us that they are “in the business of food” and that chocolate milk sells.  We can only assume this is the same rationale of the dairy industry.  (Milk sold in schools makes up 7% of all milk sales in the country, and flavored milk constitutes 71% of the milk served in our nation’s schools).  Neither party wants to risk losing “business” by only serving plain white milk, even though this is clearly the healthier option for our children.

The high-fructose corn syrup in the chocolate milk also poses a health risk to students.  An article published last year in The Washington Post reported that “almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.”  In a prepared statement, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said, “Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered.”The renowned pediatrician Dr. William Sears has written a book called “The Nutrition Deficit Disorder Book,” in which he explains that because high fructose corn syrup does not occur in nature, the body may not know how to process it.  Some researchers have expressed concern that the extra fructose in HFCS might be metabolized in the liver, causing damage there.  Because the research is mixed, Dr. Sears advises erring on the side of caution and eliminating high fructose corn syrup from children’s diets.

As parents, we consider chocolate milk a treat, not a beverage our children should be drinking every day.  We also believe that if only plain white milk and water were served in school, children would drink one or the other with their lunch.  The daily consumption of sweetened drinks, whether in the form of soda or flavored milk, is harmful to our children’s health.  It’s time for the Department of Education’s Office of School Food to put our children’s health before “business.”  No more excuses.  If the District of Columbia can do it, so can New York.

Each day we come across inspiring people and organizations doing their part to stem the stream of waste in our public school system.  Getting Tools to City Schools is one of these exceptional organizations that is trying to not only make our schools more sustainable, but also ensure that all students in New York City’s public schools have the tools they need to succeed.

Founded and directed by Dennis Kitchen, GTCS sells eco-friendly 3-ring binders as a way to fund its charitable mission of providing free, basic school supplies to students in New York City’s low-income public schools. Over half of the 1.1 million children enrolled in our city’s public schools can’t afford lunch, much less basic school supplies. In fact, New York City teachers spend anywhere from $500-$2000 of their own money each year to buy basic supplies for their students.  So Dennis decided to start a charitable organization that would give these students the necessary supplies they need to perform well in school:  a brand new three-ring binder, lined paper, pencil, pens, pocket divider folders and a pencil pouch.

As a way to fund the needed school supplies, Getting Tools to City Schools started selling eco-friendly 3-ring binders.  The binders are made of 100% recycled paperboard, which is FDA approved and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. In addition, the binders are reusable, which makes them economical.  The binder features an ingenious removable 3-ring binder mechanism.  All you have to do is dis-attach the rings, recycle the tattered and doodled-upon binder cover, and attach a new cover ready for artistic expression.  No more wasteful vinyl binders filling up our landfills.  In case you didn’t know, 40 million vinyl binders are sold in the U.S. each year, accounting for 35 million pounds of landfill.  Each year there are 8,000 landfill fires, and the PVC burning in these fires may now be the single largest source of dioxin releases in the environment.

Getting Tools to City Schools, which is an approved vendor of the NYC Department of Education, has already received orders from 3 public schools who are outfitting their entire schools (students, staff & administration) with GTCS’ recyclable, reusable binders for the fall.  Volume discounts are offered on orders of 50 or more to schools, parent’s groups, businesses, and organizations. All New York City public schools (grades K-12), whose student body is receiving more than 90% of Title 1 Funding (The Federal Free Lunch in Schools Program) are eligible for GTCS’ services.  With every reusable, recyclable binder purchased at full price, Getting Tools to City Schools will give a binder to a student at a low-income public school.  Be part of the solution:  help our city’s children perform well at school by purchasing these recyclable binders that won’t add to our landfills.

(If you want to ensure delivery of your binders before the start of the school year, get your orders in before August 1, 2010.)

Contact:

info@gettingtoolstocityschools.org

The last couple of weeks NYC Green Schools has been talking with Michele Israel, a parent at PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, about how to grow an edible school garden.  Michele has guided us through the planning stage and has generously shared with us possible sources of funding.  Once you have the funding secured for your garden, it’s finally time to plant and reap the benefits of all your hard work.

The inspiration to grow an edible school garden originates with the children, of course, and the desire to see them learn firsthand about where food comes from and to literally enjoy the fruits – and veggies – of their labor.  As soon as you have funding and your garden is a go, you will want to find ways to bring the children and teachers of your school into the process.  What the garden committee at PS 107 did to initially capture the children’s imagination was hold a garden-naming contest.  140 students submitted names.  Out of those entries the name “The Sunshine Garden,” submitted by a first grader, was selected.  Having a naming contest gave the students a sense of ownership; it signaled to them that the garden was theirs to learn from and enjoy.

Lettuce from Earth School's Garden

PS 107’s science teacher was instrumental in ensuring that the children were involved in the planting of the garden and that the garden became integrated into the curriculum.  As Michele says, “We believe that the parents should provide foundational support and continued resources…but to really make the garden part of the school, it should be in the teachers’ hands.”  This past year Michele decided to approach other teachers at her school about gardening and was able to recruit 12 more in different capacities.  As Michele explains, “When I say different capacities, I mean that some just did hydroponic gardening in the classroom using AeroGrow Gardens, others started seeds in the classroom using grow lights…  And, several used the garden to address a mandated inquiry project they had to do.”  The point is gardening doesn’t just have to take place outside, it can happen in the classroom as well.

Be prepared that with students planting, the garden is probably going to have a haphazard quality.  Here’s Michele’s advice:  “Let the garden be messy…meaning that with students, especially young ones, things might get a bit disorganized…too many seeds in one place, things kind of strewn here and there…for me, that’s OK…things can be thinned, replanted, replaced…nature truly does take its course.”  As students get their hands dirty in the garden, they learn about plants, the natural environment (from weather to water to soil), and healthy eating.  This year students at PS 107 will use their garden to examine environmental conditions that have an impact on gardening.  As Steve Tomsik, PS 107’s science teacher explains, “I see the garden not only as an extension of my classroom, where lab work and scientific inquiry can take place, but also as a novel and engaging place where students can explore.” Here’s a sampling of some of the fruits and vegetables PS 107 grew in 2009:  peas, spinach, corn, raspberries, gooseberries, lettuce, kale, leeks, arugula, beans, sweet peppers, eggplant, sunflowers, chives, three types of basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and heirloom potatoes.  And remember theirs is a shady garden!

You may be wondering what to do with all this fresh, healthy food once you’ve grown it.  Many NYC schools with edible gardens participate in the Garden to School Café pilot program from the NYC Department of Education’s SchoolFood and the N.Y. State Dept. of Agriculture and Markets.  Participating schools have a “Harvest Day,” when the fresh food grown in their gardens is used to prepare dishes that the students can sample.  The Earth School in the East Village recently had their Harvest Day.  Their menu included roasted potatoes with rosemary, sautéed spinach with garlic, and pasta with fresh basil pesto.  These dishes were served that day as part of the school lunch in the cafeteria as well.  PS 107’s Harvest Day included roasted basil chicken, herbed rice, and kale slaw, which were prepared with the fresh vegetables grown in their garden.

Cooking Demo at Harvest Day

The Garden to School Café program shows students, parents and teachers that meals prepared with fresh ingredients are possible for school lunch.  At The Earth School, students loved the food that was prepared.  “The potatoes are amazing!”  “The spinach is so good!”  At PS 107, students were heard saying at their Harvest Day “This is the best food I ever ate!”  “Do you know why the pesto was so good?  Because we grew it!”  Kids whose favorite vegetable was french fries are now requesting kale and pesto for dinner (according to some parents).

As we stated at the beginning of this series, starting an edible garden at your school is going to take planning, diplomatic skills, research, creativity, resourcefulness, and stamina.  As you consider whether to grow an edible garden at your school, we’d like to leave you with these words from Cynthia Holton, principal of PS 107:

“I view the garden as an important part of the school’s progressive curriculum, in which experiential and collaborative learning are key components. What better way to immerse students in science, as well as in environmental and nutrition education? Our fruit and vegetable garden serves as an outdoor learning lab where students delve into the life and physical sciences and agricultural literacy. They work together to plant and make gardening decisions. They become environmental stewards who grow their appreciation of the natural world. All of this makes for an excellent education.”

Last week we featured Michele Israel, a parent at PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who was instrumental in starting an edible garden at her school:  we spoke with Michele about the planning stage and how crucial it is to win the support of your principal, custodial engineer, PTA board, parents and teachers.  This week Michele will help us identify start-up costs associated with a school garden and possible sources for funding.

Michele’s first recommendation is to “start small,” maybe just a couple of beds to see how much work is involved and how enthusiastically the garden is received by the school community.  Michele estimates it will take anywhere from 6 months to a year to research the materials you will need for your garden and find capital.  In the case of PS 107, members of their volunteer garden committee were assigned different tasks, such as fundraising, grant research, community outreach, and vendor solicitation.  Keep in mind that your start-up costs will be where you spend most of your money as they will include lumber for the beds, soil, seeds and tools.  Once you have those materials, the costs for your garden dramatically decrease (unless you decide to expand the garden, which should be part of your consideration when putting together a budget).

The start-up costs for PS 107’s garden were approximately $4,000 and included recycled plastic lumber for their beds, which is significantly more expensive than untreated lumber.  If you start small, your costs will probably be closer to $2,000, according to Michele.  Helpful sites to check out regarding start-up costs are GreenThumb, Ecoliteracy, School Garden Wizard and California School Garden Network.  Some PTA Boards may be willing to contribute funds to the garden, but Michele was determined to keep the garden committee of her school autonomous from the PTA, and so they raised the money themselves.  The first step Michele recommends is registering your garden with GreenThumb.  GreenThumb, holds annual seed and plant giveaways; they will provide compost if you attend one of their composting workshops; they also hold workshops where you can receive resource guides, pamphlets and other useful handouts.  Other organizations you’ll want to look into are the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s GreenBridge Community Garden Alliance, Bronx Green Up of the New York Botanical Garden, Green Guerillas, and GROW NYC.

Michele has also spent and continues to spend long stretches of time at her computer visiting gardening websites and signing up for gardening newsletters to price materials, find great deals and get general tips.  All her research has led her to discover that you never need to buy seeds.  As Michele says, “Get them donated.  Most garden centers unload their seeds in the summer.”  And you apparently don’t need to worry about the expiration dates either:  as Michele explained, “Seeds last quite a while, especially if kept in a cool dry place.”  A source for seeds she recommends is America the Beautiful Fund.  It became obvious from our conversation with Michele that researching and writing grants make up an enormous amount of the “school garden experience”.  Although we can’t spare you the ordeal of writing a grant (maybe someone on your PTA or a grant writer at your school can), we can save you time with the research.  Michele has been generous enough to share with NYC Green Schools a list she has compiled about possible funding sources for school gardens, which you can read here.  The list includes garden, environmental, nutrition, and science grants that are available as well as grant search websites.

In addition to grants, PS 107 also received discounts on materials from local community vendors.  A local lumber company greatly discounted the recycled plastic lumber they used for their planters.  Michele says, “The trick is reaching out, making a good pitch, expressing need if there is one and telling vendors where they will be acknowledged (website, parent e-mail, newsletter, etc.).  In her opinion, most places will help out to some degree.  And she adds, “Always write a thank you note on letterhead!”  Michele also posted on list serves for donations of gardening supplies and received donations from parents at the school as well.  She attributes much of their garden committee’s fundraising success to the website they created.  Michele says, “The website is a very useful tool for fundraising, publicity, acknowledging donors, volunteers…  It is my prime marketing tool.”  A website can inspire people to donate money, time, and/or supplies; it’s also very helpful to have when you have to submit your progress report to your grantmaker.

If you’d love to have an edible garden at your school, but your school lacks the space or you don’t have the time to research and write grants, a couple of NYC Green School parents wrote to us about an organization called Wooly Pockets.  For $1,000, Wooly Pockets offers a vertical wall system that includes 50 pockets, plant and vegetable seeds, organic soil and a curriculum.  And if your school doesn’t have $1,000 for such a project, Wooly Pockets will fundraise for you.  All you have to do is put your school’s name on the list!  Now there really is no excuse for not having an edible garden at your school.

More on planting and harvesting in our next post.

Planting a garden at your school can be as simple or elaborate as your ambitions, financial resources, stamina, and the support of your principal, custodial engineer, and science teacher.  Recently we spoke with Michele Israel, a parent at PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to find out how she started a garden at her school.  We won’t lie to you:  the process is going to take planning, diplomatic skills, research, creativity, resourcefulness and, did we mention it already, stamina.  But if you’re willing to dive in and spearhead a garden at your school, you could be rewarded with the sight of your child joyfully eating the lettuce, peas, and purple basil she herself planted in the school’s courtyard while learning firsthand about growing fresh food and healthy eating.

Because there are so many facets to getting a school garden started, we’ve decided to break down the process into three phases:  development/planning, materials/financing, and planting/harvesting.  Today we’ll look at the development/planning stage.  Over the next two weeks we’ll cover the other phases.

There can be no garden at your school unless you win people’s support, particularly that of your principal, custodial engineer, PTA board, and teachers.  So, before wasting any time researching and planning for one, go to your principal and see if she’s receptive to the idea.  At PS 107, the principal was on board; but it was decided that the garden would go in the school’s courtyard, which did not get optimal sunlight.  But as Michele said, “Since the principal supported the garden, we figured out how to work with the space.”  In fact, Michele has identified being “a problem solver” as a key characteristic of being a school gardener, since you will run into many unanticipated obstacles, like getting a space with little to no sunlight.

Once a space had been designated, a small planning team was formed that consisted of three parents and garden designer Bryan Quinn of One Nature Design.  Members of the planning team visited a few school gardens to get ideas and then had experienced people take a look at the space to let them know what was possible.  These people included the then manager of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s GreenBridge and the executive director of GROW NYC, who happened to be a parent of PS 107 at the time.  Another person you might want to consider getting feedback from is an experienced gardener from a local community garden.

Bryan Quinn, who was working for the school on a pro-bono basis, then created several designs of what the garden might look like.  (His work also included a shade study and recommendations for plants.)  Before presenting the agreed-upon design to her principal, Michele first showed it to the school’s custodial engineer to find out whether the proposed design interfered with any fire exits or construction mandates.  Input from your custodial engineer is critical, since they will know about building regulations, possible sources of water, where to store tools, etc.  Once the design received their custodial engineer’s approval, members of the planning committee then presented the design, along with their PTA president, to the principal and assistant principal.  Michele maintains that “the design really helped propel the project,” because helping the principal and assistant principal visualize the garden got them excited about it and convinced them to move ahead.

Accommodating your school administration’s needs and desires will be critical to your garden’s success, as will be your ability to assure them that the garden will not result in any extra work for them.  You need to make it clear that you, the parents, will be doing all the dirty work (although in the case of PS 107, the science teacher got involved as well as the children) and that you will be consulting with your principal and custodian regarding each step of the plan.  As Michele says, “The garden is not for the parents.  It’s for the entire school and the school administrators have the final say…  For example, to get access to the school on the weekend, when we did the construction, we needed a permit.”  And the only way Michele could get that, as well a key to the courtyard, was through their custodial engineer.

With time, as it became clear that the parents at PS 107 would be taking care of the school garden themselves, everyone became more amenable.  Their custodial engineer even took a trip to Home Depot to buy a hose with a gift card that the garden committee had won as part of a grant.  As Michele says, “A school garden is about developing relationships…  I believe in working as a team and working within the parameters that we have.”  In fact, the school administrators are now among the garden’s biggest fans, enthusiastic about ways the garden can grow and be incorporated into the curriculum.

Once you have a plan and the support of your principal, PTA board and custodial engineer, it’s time to form a volunteer gardening committee.  In the case of PS 107, they were able to assemble 20 active and committed members including Bryan Quinn of One Nature Design, their science teacher, a local carpenter (a must for the construction of the all-important planters), and parents.  The first task of the committee was devising a budget for the garden and securing funds.  Next week we will have information about gardening grants, how to secure free tools and seeds, and what materials to consider for your garden.

The Green Cup Challenge (GCC) is a national inter-school energy-conservation competition designed to reduce schools’ electricity use.  161 schools competed nationally in this year’s GCC and the winner was PS 166, a public elementary school on New York’s Upper West Side.   In just 4 weeks (from January 15 – February 12 at peak winter energy use), PS 166 reduced its energy consumption by 17.75%.  Ozgem Omektekin, the Department of Education’s Director of Sustainability says, “The school saved $1,845 on its electricity bill (15,380 kilowatt hours) and prevented 20,609 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) from being released into the environment.”  A carbon calculator was used by Katy Perry, the GCC’s Program Director, to assess PS 166’s impact, and she found that PS 166’s energy saving was equal to taking 2 cars off the road for one year, planting 10 trees or replacing 374 incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents.  And the school accomplished all this is just 4 weeks!

What extreme measures did PS 166 take to win?  As it turns out, none.  They posted signs reminding everyone to turn off unnecessary lights, to set thermostats to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, to power down computers, and to close windows and doors.  Custodial staff turned off heat and boilers at night.  Although no extreme measures were taken, a little vigilance and visual incentives were required.  A Green Team comprised of parents, science teachers, and 5^th grade “Climate Captains” walked through the school every Wednesday to see how people were doing.  Parents and teachers received weekly communiqués about the school’s progress.  And a large 3-D “Powerometer” was displayed in the school lobby to show whether meter readings were going up or down.

And by turning off lights, powering down computers, setting thermostats to a comfortable 68 degrees, PS 166 was able to reduce its energy consumption by nearly 18%.  And, perhaps more importantly, the kids learned about the impact their behavior has on the environment.  Emily Fano, Co-Chair of PS 166’s Green Committee and coordinator of the school’s GCC, said she received numerous emails from fellow parents who said their children were now turning off lights at home.  Imagine if the 1,600 public schools in New York City took the Green Cup Challenge and reduced their energy consumption by nearly 20%.  Think of the numbers of trees we would be planting or cars we would be removing from the road.

We hope educators and parents will be inspired by PS 166’s example and take the simple steps listed above to reduce their energy consumption.  But relying on people’s altruism is not quite the same as instituting a policy that will guarantee success.  We discovered that The Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) pays the utility bills for the New York City public schools.  We’d like to propose a policy whereby the money a school saves on its electric bills is given to the school.  Such a policy would not only give schools a huge incentive to reduce their energy consumption, it would also give our city schools money they need at a time of severe budget cuts.  Opportunities to raise money for our schools that do not cost our government anything which also help to fight global warming are few and far between.  The Mayor should seize this idea and make it happen.

When we joined the Wellness Committee at our schools, we were concerned parents with the simple agenda of wanting to improve the food in our school cafeteria.  We never dreamed we’d become ardent food activists meeting with PTA Presidents, community boards, non-profit organizations, and other impassioned food mamas about how to change the food system in our public schools.  But thanks to Chancellor Regulation A-812 banning the sale of home-cooked foods in our schools while allowing the sale of Doritos and Pop-Tarts instead, that is what we’ve quickly become.

Since our bake-in rally protesting the regulation in March, NYC Green Schools has been on the ground advocating for a repeal of the ban on the sale of home-cooked food at PTA president council meetings, community board meetings, and community education council meetings.  We are happy to report that Community Boards 1, 2, 3 and 7 in Manhattan have all passed resolutions urging the Department of Education to repeal the ban.  Their resolution will be presented at the Manhattan Borough Board Meeting this Thursday, May 18^th, where the rest of the Manhattan community boards and Borough President Scott Stringer can learn about the resolution.  Last week Community Board 6 in Brooklyn also passed a resolution asking the Department of Education to repeal the ban, and we’re confident their resolution will be brought to a borough board meeting as well.

What are the role of community boards in the political process?   That was our question when Community Board 2 in Manhattan invited us to speak about Regulation A-812.  While the Department of Education can willfully ignore resolutions passed by community boards, our elected officials cannot.  Resolutions passed by community boards signal to our city council members and borough board presidents that there’s broad support for a measure, prompting our elected officials to then put pressure on our Mayor and Chancellor to honor, or at the very least acknowledge, the will of the people.  In short, New York City community boards are a vital part of the democratic process ensuring that our city government is run by and for the people.

NYC Green Schools is continuing to broaden our coalition of parents, educators, community boards and community education councils, because we’ve learned that the only way we’re going to genuinely improve the quality of the food and, for that matter, education in our public schools is by coming together as parents, educators and citizens and demanding change.  Before Chancellor Regulation A-812, this idea of building, dare we say it, a people’s movement would have seemed too abstract and daunting; but these last few months we’ve come to understand these words by the great historian and activist Howard Zinn:  “And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Although Debby Lee Cohen asked her children every day what they ate for lunch, it never occurred to her to ask them what their school lunch was served on, and so, like most New York City parents, she remained blissfully ignorant.  A trip last spring to the Climate Change exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, however, changed all that.  At the exhibit her seven-year old daughter stood staring at a diorama of a life-size polar bear standing on a melted island covered with trash.  Finally, her daughter turned around and announced that she would no longer buy school lunch in order “to save the polar bears.”  And that’s how Debby Lee Cohen discovered that in New York City school lunches are served on Styrofoam trays.

Read our interview with Debby Lee, a teacher at Parsons The New School for Design, to find out the health and environmental hazards of using Styrofoam and what you can do, as a parent or educator, to get rid of the Styrofoam trays at your school.

Why are you so determined to get rid of the Styrofoam trays in our schools?

Tell Your Children NOT to Scrape Their Trays With Their Sporks!

Styrofoam (polystyrene) trays are the worst kept secret in NYC schools.  NYC schools use 850,000 trays per day, which amounts to 153 million trays a year!!  They are terrible for our children’s health and for the environment.  Some children eat 3 meals a day directly off of these trays, which are made up of the chemicals benzene and styrene.  Styrene, a possible carcinogen, leaches into hot foods and has been linked to central nervous system disorders such as headaches, fatigue, depression, and hearing loss.  NY State passed legislation banning toxic cleaning products in all schools.  Parents should demand toxic-free school lunches as well. We should not be taking risks with our children’s health.

If that’s not bad enough, polystyrene is a petroleum-based product which stays around for centuries, if not longer, taking up an enormous amount of landfill space.  Solid waste adds a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Why then are we still using Styrofoam?

Styrofoam is cheap, extremely lightweight, and insulates well. In fact, the price per tray just came down from 4 cents to 3 cents!  Most of the available alternatives, such as biodegradable sugar-cane trays, cost much more.  And although prices of alternative disposables are slowly coming down due to increased demand, the prices are not coming down fast enough to make the change that is needed.

How did you make the transition from an informed, angry Mom to an activist?

A few weeks after I discovered our children were eating off of Styrofoam trays, I had the opportunity with my Parsons 3D students to create am installation out of used Styrofoam trays.  I was in school cafeterias pulling out hundreds of dirty trays from the trash and realized that a significant number were barely used.  My initial thought was why don’t we have a “don’t need, don’t take policy” in place. This would not only reduce the number of trays thrown out but would save the city money. For example, if a student only buys a sandwich and a drink, they don’t really need a tray.

I started making phone calls everyday, looking for some organization that was dealing with the tray issue.  Although I found some amazing individuals, like parent Helen Greenberg, who were working hard to make change within their own school, there was no group working on trays as a citywide issue. I wondered if parents of children receiving free and subsidized school lunch had a clue about the harmful effects of Styrofoam trays.

I was already in discussion with another parent and web designer, Robin Perl, about creating a website on climate change. We saw the tray issue as a solvable problem.  Robin designed an effective site along with quotes from doctors at Mt Sinai and NRDC, which gave us credibility. We sent out emails and petitions to everyone we knew and our organization, Styrofoam Out of Schools (SOS) was formed.

You’ve succeeded in bringing TRAYLESS TUESDAY to our schools?  Can you describe what TRAYLESS TUESDAY is and how you made it happen?

Robin Perl and I, along with fellow Parsons teacher and product designer, Jessica Corr, and parent Helen Greenberg, asked for a meeting with Eric Goldstein and other SchoolFood directors. We agreed in the meeting to find ways of reducing tray use with Jessica Parson’s class working in a school cafeteria. Out of this class, the idea of TRAYLESS TUESDAY, a trend that was already taking place on college campuses, was born and proposed to the Department of Education.  They agreed to try it out and as of March 2010 all NYC schools participate in TRAYLESS TUESDAY, which reduces the use of Styrofoam trays by 20%, or 850,00 trays per week.

Paper Boats Stacked for Recycling Bin

Right now Parsons students are designing posters to support TRAYLESS TUESDAY and to improve cafeteria recycling.  Unfortunately, these posters will not arrive in schools until the fall.  In the meantime, we need parents and administrators to explain to staff and students what TRAYLESS TUESDAY is all about and why it’s such an important movement for our schools.

How are you working to get rid of Styrofoam trays the other four days of the week?

The first step is to use recyclable paper products on pizza days and all other days and meals that do not have a saucy component. SchoolFood is already purchasing paper boats (what looks like a paper hot dog tray but larger), which they will substitute for the Styrofoam trays for all breakfast meals and soon for pizza days as well.  SchoolFood director, Stephen O’Brien, is dedicated to making this change happen.

With the support of SchoolFood, our legislators, and the Mayor’s office, we need to begin piloting alternative trays and systems in order to find solutions which do not threaten our children’s health while also significantly reducing our carbon emissions.  This will take true collaboration involving many parties. We need to bring DSNY, manufacturers, cafeteria and custodial unions, the recycling mill managers, the Department of Heath, legislators and the DOE together to formulate a viable long-term plan.

It is also time to make the elimination of Styrofoam a national movement.  By increasing demand for alternative products, we can bring the price down on a national level.  NYC should partner with other large east coast cities and counties to increase buying power.

Schools can substitute their Styrofoam trays for biodegradable sugar-cane trays or reusable, washable trays if they have a dishwasher.  How many schools are no longer using Styrofoam trays?  What should a parent do if they want to get rid of the Styrofoam trays at their school?

I would first encourage parents to attend their school’s Wellness Committee meeting and ask that the paper boats be used instead of Styrofoam whenever possible. If their school does not have a Wellness Committee, go to NYC Green Schools and find out how to get one started.

Reusable trays would be great. Currently, however, there are only 30 public schools in the city that still have dishwashers and some schools do not even have the plumbing to support a dishwasher.

Twelve schools are presently self-funding the extra cost to purchase biodegradable sugar-cane trays. I strongly encourage schools that can raise the money to make the change to sugar-cane trays in order to keep their children from eating off of Styrofoam.  Presently, however, there is no free composting facility or pick-up available (something we should all be advocating for), so these trays go directly into sealed landfills where they do not biodegrade for a very long time.

The steps a parent can take to get rid of Styrofoam in their school can be found on our website page, TAKE ACTION.

Is there anything else you’d like people to know?

SOS is planning on setting up pilots for a variety of alternative possibilities, including composting for all the schools that use the sugar-cane trays, providing energy-efficient or solar-powered dishwashers for reusable trays, employing personal reusable trays and cutlery, and piloting new disposable prototypes as well as system changes that suit the needs of NYC and other large urban school districts.  We need volunteers, partnerships with universities and manufacturers, and funding to get these initiatives going asap!  For anyone interested in joining us, we can be contacted at info@sosnyc.org

As parents and educators, we have the responsibility to teach our children to be responsible citizens (which includes reducing waste) and to provide them with school facilities and services that they will not be paying for as adults!  NYC has an enormous amount of work to do in terms of reducing our waste.  We should teach and empower our children by setting the best example in our schools.

Styrofoam Trays

The Child Nutrition Act, which is renewed every five years and sets the rules and funding levels for federal nutrition programs, including the school lunch and breakfast programs, is presently being considered by Congress.  President Obama, who has set the goal of ending child hunger by 2015, is calling for $1 billion a year in funding for The Child Nutrition Act over the next ten years.  But Joel Burger, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, along with other agencies fighting child hunger, says it’s going to take $4 billion a year to get healthy, nutritious meals to the 13 million children in the United States living in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger (which represents more than one in ten households).  Unfortunately, the bill that emerged from the Senate Agricultural Committee has only allocated $450 million a year, not even half of what President Obama is recommending.

As the House of Representatives drafts its bill, which is expected to be released in mid-May, we are urging all New Yorkers to sign the New York City Council’s online petition urging Congress to support President Obama’s call for $1 billion a year in funding.  Although it’s not the $4 billion a year NYC Green Schools supports, $1 billion a year will help cover a much-needed increase in reimbursements for healthier meals, as well as make enrollment in meal programs easier for children and families.  It will also include assistance for farm-to-school programs.  One in four children in New York City live in poverty, defined as an annual income below $16,600 for a family of three.  We all need to rally behind this initiative of Speaker Christine Quinn and the City Council to make sure these children have access to healthy school meals, because in many cases the school breakfast and lunch that they eat are their only meals for the day.

So where is the money to fund the Child Nutrition Act supposed to come from?  In our opinion, if the federal government can come up with $700 billion to bail out Wall Street, it can certainly find $4 billion a year to serve our nation’s hungry, undernourished children the healthy meals they need to realize their full potential.  In its 2011 budget proposal, the Obama administration wants to limit farm subsidies to “wealthy farmers” and cut back government support for crop-insurance companies, which together would save more than $10 billion over the next ten years – enough to support the $1 billion a year the President is calling for.  Congress needs to make feeding healthy, nutritious meals to our country’s hungry children a top priority.  And we need to let Congress know by signing the City Council’s petition that it’s our top priority and what we want out tax dollars to support.

Since our bake-in rally outside City Hall in March, NYC Green Schools has been working with Community Boards to pass a resolution urging the Department of Education to repeal the ban on the sale of home-cooked foods in our schools.  We are happy to let you know that CBs 1, 2, 3, & 7 in Manhattan have all passed resolutions urging the DOE to repeal the ban.  Together, they will ask that the resolution be put on the agenda of their next Borough Board Meeting.  A Borough Board Meeting would offer NYC Green Schools the opportunity to present the issue to all the Manhattan CBs as well as to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. If all the CBs in Manhattan were to pass the resolution, this would be a powerful message to Chancellor Klein to repeal the ban.

But this initiative isn’t limited to Manhattan.  Last Wednesday, NYC Green School member Helen Greenberg visited the Youth/Educational Committee of CB6 in Brooklyn, which also passed the resolution to repeal the ban.  The full board of CB6 will be voting on the resolution Wednesday, May 12th.  We’re hoping other CBs in Brooklyn will follow the lead of CB6 and that the resolution can eventually be brought to their Borough Board Meeting as well.

If you know someone serving on a Community Board who would be supportive of this effort, please contact us above.  We want to make CBs all over the city part of this campaign.

Thanks.