I am thinking about implementing a waste-free lunch program at my school. Our school is still using disposable lunch trays and utensils for school hot lunch. If our students can bring their own reusable trays and utensils to school and wash them at home, it will be a big decrease in trash volume. After talking to the food services lady at school,, she was concerned that if the trays that the students bring are not clean enough, it would have 2nd food contamination. I know a lot of schools in foreign countries are using reusable dinnerware for school hot lunch. Maybe American schools have different rules? I live in CA, how about other states? Any good advice?
http://www.kitchendaily.com/2010/02/22/school-lunches-aro...
(found some school lunch pictures from other countries, all are using reusable ones....)
Thanks for the answers. Maybe I was not clear on my question. My kids bring their own lunch most of the time, not a problem. But at our school, there are many kids that eat school lunch every day, that's 180 trays/utensils in a school year per student! I think the reusable trays/utensils still outweigh the disposable ones. Just have some hard time implementing it.
I don't think they would go for it. What a pain to get the kids to bring their stuff in every day, and clean. And then walk with it down to the caf.
It also has to do with the State's rules and regulations for sanitation/cleaning of the food apparatuses etc.
And if they have the equipment to wash/clean all of that, etc.
And the personnel to do so.
And the cost to do so.
That would also increase water usage & electricity etc.
Soap/cleaning costs.
And if they have to renovate the work area for the cleaning of these things etc.
School cafeterias in Ca. fall under the same rules as restaurants in regards to the rules they need to follow for washing, rinsing, and sanitizing dishes. They are also subject to inspections by the county health department (I work at our school kitchen and learned this at a food safety certification course). At our school, which already relies heavily on parent volunteer labor to prep and serve the food and clean up the salad bar serveware afterward by hand - no commercial dishwasher, it's not feasible (in terms of labor, equipment, and storage) to add cleaning and sanitizing of 200-300 trays and flatware so instead we use biocompostable trays and flatware like these:
http://www.worldcentric.org/biocompostables/trays/
http://www.worldcentric.org/biocompostables/utensils/uten...
Another good waste reduction method is to try implementing composting of food waste. If regular garden composting doesn't work (can lead to rodent problems in school gardens), you can check with your local waste management authority to see if they have a commercial green waste pickup route that they can add your school to their route.
Nope - too many sanitation issues. How about researching "greener" tray and utensil options? Such as:
http://www.biodegradablestore.com/pp/Utensils/corn_hw/pp_...
just a few that came up in a Google search
I have heard from some enviromentalists that this issue falls into the category of "Six of one, half dozen of the other." There is waste, yes, but by washing all the trays and silverware you are using water and electricity. Don't quote me or anything ... just something I've been told from a few sources.
The elementary school I went to so long ago (that my niece also goes to now!) have always used reusable trays, dishes, and silverware. I agree with the lunch lady. They have to keep everything so clean, bacteria free, and introducing trays they can't control the cleanliness of, could be a problem.
How about trying to get the school to change to reusable trays. I would not take long for it to save them money.
Our schools only use disposable ones onthe rare occasion that something prevents them from being able to wash dishes (ex. Loss of electricity) otherwise it's regular trays and utensils.
If this is that important to you, why not just pack your kids lunches in a reusable lunch bag and utensiles?
School lunchrooms and cafeterias have to follow the same guidelines as a restaurant and have health code inspections. Due to this, trays from home would not be allowed. The school would need to have a place to clean and sanitize, and the trays wouldn't be allowed to leave school. While this is a GREAT idea, it would have to be implemented from the school building, not having students bringing the items from home. You can compare it to eating out at a restaurant. Would you be allowed to bring your own plate for them to serve your meal on? For sanitary reasons, no.
I volunteer in my son's Kindergarten class - the kids are required to bring a snack from home and have the option of eating hot lunch or "brown bagging it" from home. One little boy was sent to school with his lunch box infested with ants which then got into all the other kids lunch bags. Soooo Gross! So , do you think his mother, who can't be bothered to wipe out a lunch box would properly wash a tray and utensils?
Also, a lot of kids get hot lunch because their parents can't afford to feed them otherwise - it would be a burden to expect them to purchase fancy lunch trays etc.
My son's school uses cardboard looking food trays - I am sure they could be composted instead of just tossed away.
SO, maybe it would be simpler and more hygenic to compost paper trays than to trust kids to take home dirty dishes and bring back clean ones daily.
The plastic forks etc. should be recyclable too?? I put ours in the recycling bin.
Just a thought....
I know some schools that my kids have gone to didn't have their own kitchen to prepare food for lunches. It was prepared/cooked at a larger campus (middle school) and then transported over to the elementary in special hot/cold cases. We had no means to wash trays or utensils on campus so it was disposable all the way (the middle school had reusable trays but disposable utensils). I worked there for the spring semester and then quit because I saw things that went against my ethical code (like lying about the temperature of food on the daily reports) and yes I did tell my boss what I had seen.
I think we should just do our best to control waste where we can and try to encourage less wastefulness where we don't have as much control (like at schools).
The school could go back to the trays and regular silverware, but it will take electricity, water and more hours to pay the staff..
I guess you would need to do an analysis, to figure out environmentally what the trade is and also the cost to the district.
Or just send your child their own lunch packed in a paper bag with reusable wrappers on their meals..
I think your idea is a great one, however I don't think it will work. Not all families care about the environment and many will simply say "I don't have time for this". The other issue is cost. The school probably doesn't have reusable trays and utensils because they fear the children will accidentally throw them away, lose them, etc. But, that being said, I would still try to lobby the school to purchase these things to help with the waste issue. It would probably take some training on the part of the children to not lose or throw them away, but I don't see why it can't be done.
Awesome idea!
But with all the food handling regulations, I don't think it would ever fly. AND school food services are notoriously dogmatic. That's why they have the crappy food when competitively priced healthier stuff IS available.
When I was a kid (1970's) the lunches were served on reusable trays. The staff washed the trays after. Maybe "convenience" has gone a bit far. If I was to pick up the battle I would ask the lunch room staff to serve the food (instead of putting them in little containers that the kids take) and wash the trays after. Requiring kids to take trays home and wash them will never work. Most parents just don't care. I feel the best thing is to lead by example - we pack our lunch items in plastic reusable containers and wrap sandwiches in plastic-lined fabric mats (wrap-n-mat wrap). Good-luck.
there are compostible 'plastic' utensils now, and that combined with minimal use of paper/cardboard compostible trays would make whatever was not eaten completely compostible. The utensils are made out of corn potatoes or sugar cane. google cornware or green party goods or potatoware. Don't give up! I'm about to undertake a campaign to outlaw styrofoam food containers in San Mateo county. Anyone want to join me?
