Greener School Lunches

This week we celebrate Earth Day.  One way to improve the environment in our community is to find ways to reduce our waste stream and recycle as much as we can.

Every day, the district's Child Nutrition Services department serves about 3,500 meals to students at our 13 school campuses.  Every meal is currently served on a styrofoam tray.  These trays are discarded at the end of the meal, meaning that over 600,000 trays are discarded at our schools over the course of the school year.  Unfortunately, these polystyrene trays are made from non-renewable materials.  Even worse, there is no cost-effective way to recycle styrofoam, so all these trays end up in the landfill.  Since they don't biodegrade, they can linger for centuries.

I am very excited that starting in the fall, the district will be transitioning to trays made from compostable material.  Special thanks go to the district's Child Nutrition Services Department, led by Mari Fujikawa, for finding a way to make this happen.  While the trays cost about 3 cents more than the current styrofoam trays, this is a worthwhile investment.  I am proud that our district continues to find ways to be a responsible steward to the environment.  The use of compostable material will also teach our students to make wise choices when it comes to the kinds of products they buy.