• About
    • About
    • Team
    • Our Story
    • Reports
    • Press
    • Partners
    • Contact
  • MICROPLASTIC MADNESS
    • MICROPLASTIC MADNESS
    • Host a screening
    • The Plastic Pollution Crisis
    • Creative Team and Credits
    • Movie Feedback
  • Plastic Free Lunch
    • Plastic Free Lunch
    • FAQs - Plastic Free Lunch Day
    • PFLD School Food Service
    • Action Plan ideas - PFLD
    • NYC Plastic Free Lunch Days
  • Take Action Toolkits
    • K-12 Toolkit - Plastic Free Lunch Day
    • K-12 Toolkit - Microplastic Madness
    • DIY DATA ACTION litter cleanup >
      • DATA +ACTION litter clean up
      • Student and Teacher Litter Data Collection
    • SORT2SAVE KIT >
      • SORT2SAVE KIT - Cafeteria Rangers
      • Downloads - S2S - Cafeteria Rangers
      • Daily Operations - S2S - Cafeteria Rangers
      • Videos - Cafeteria Rangers
      • S2s Quick Launch Guide
      • Job Descriptions for Cafeteria Rangers
      • SORT2save Cheer! - lyrics + video
      • SORT2SAVE - About, Partners, License Agreement
    • Foam Trays Out of Schools >
      • NYC Foam Ban
      • Trayless Tuesdays
      • No-Styro Puppets
      • FAQs - Getting Styrofoam Out of Schools
    • Alternative Messaging
    • Action at home
    • Action on Policy >
      • Plastic Water Bottle ban NYC
      • NY Bag Bill
  • Donate
  • Youth Advocates Program
  • MORE RESOURCES
    • Resource Library
    • Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Taiwan - Lessons Learned
  • Events
  • Latest - Cafeteria Culture blog
  • Volunteer
Cafeteria Culture

You're currently on our archive site - Back to New Website

​ZERO WASTE
​CAFETERIAS and SCHOOLS

Innovative hands-on 
​
Environmental-STEaM Education 

​with student leadership,
​creative problem solving, 
with real world advocacy


See our sort2save.org toolkit
Watch on Youtube ->; Watch on Vimeo ->
SORT 2 SAVE
Picture
Picture

Follow 
Us


​YOUTUBE- CafCu Media
INSTAGRAM @CafCu
​
TWITTER   @CafeteriaCu
FACEBOOK - Cafeteria          Culture


(See highlights from all of Cafeteria Culture's Schools Programs)
Cafeteria Rangers Are Learning How to Reduce School Waste  
WNCY.org
, April 23, 2018, reported by Shumita Basu

Picture
Cafeteria Rangers from PS 188 the Island school spoke with report Shumita Basu from WNYC.org (photo credit: Atsuko Quirk, Cafeteria Culture)
UL Innovative Education Award 2015 - Cafeteria Culture

Recipient of a
2015 UL Innovative Education Award 

to Advance Environmental and Stem Education,
awarded for our ARTS+ACTION program! read more ->​

(See highlights from all of Cafeteria Culture's Schools Porgrams)
Picture

Cafeteria Rangers 
Learn how to start your own Cafeteria Ranger program here->

Picture
PS 188 M The Island School, Cafeteria Rangers
Picture
Girls Prep Lower East Side Cafeteria Rangers
Picture
P94 The Spectrum School Cafeteria Rangers
Picture
PS 32 X The Belmont Schoo, Cafeteria Ranger Training
Picture
PS/MS 34 M Franklin D Roosevelt Cafeteria Monitors
Picture
NEST+m Cafeteria Rangers
Picture
PS/MS 34 Franklin D Roosevelt Cafeteria Monitors - student leadership in middle school
Picture
MS 246 Walt Whitman, day after Cafeteria Ranger Launch - students reading diversion rates on the "Amazing First Day" poster
Picture
PS 34 M Franklin D Roosevelt Cafeteria Rangers

ARTS + ACTION 
ZERO WASTE SCHOOL

a cafeteria and classroom program, providing urgently needed school cafeteria and school solid waste reduction, recycling, composting, and sorting education for grades pre-K- 12. The program has 2 main components     - Cafeteria Ranger Training and
 - Make Change Messaging  w/Youth Made Media 

 
The primary program goals are to decrease school cafeteria garbage and bin contamination and create a school wide sustainability culture by incorporating the following methods:
  1. Empowering students to be Cafeteria Rangers (or monitors) who oversee all sorting;
  2. Teaching students both the “why” and the “how to” of garbage reduction;
  3. Linking consumption and post-consumption behavior to Climate Change;
  4. Bridging operational gaps;
  5. Leading students in the creation of “edu-taining” messaging campaigns, such as designing giant puppets and creating video shorts.
Picture
Picture

The Two Part Program:

CAFETERIA ZERO WASTE:
RECYCLING, COMPOSTING, LEADERSHIP,
and GRATITUDE

CLASSROOM CURRICULUM

Cafeteria Ranger trainings

The Cafeteria Ranger training first takes place in the classroom with our GARBOLOGY 101 interactive presentations, linking environmental justice, plastic pollution and climate change to zero waste understanding.  After the "why," we teach the "how" of  sorting. Students become the leaders in their own cafeterias, overseeing all sorting, recycling and composting, as well as collecting data. This strategy is hugely successful and adds an amazing community spirit to the lunch period.

We have designed the Cafeteria Ranger program with an easy to use sign-up system, allowing every student in the school to have the chance to be a Ranger at some point during the school year.


Make Change Messaging 

Our interdisciplinary Make Change Messaging Workshop is taught to K-8th grade students. Lessons include: Change-makers throughout American history, advocacy, Consumption and Design, Socratic Discussions,  Prototyping, where students design concepts and build prototypes of their own new lunch tray.

Students work in groups to design an alternative messaging campaign in order to gain the buy-in from their entire community on waste reduction initiatives.

We now teach Zero Waste Classrooms and Hallways as part of our school-wide programs - with students as the leaders!

Garbology 101 - Teaching the "why" before the "how."

Cafeteria Monitors

What's It all about?

In the  spring of 2012, we piloted our first ARTS+ACTION Cafeteria Waste Reduction (A+A CWR) Program at NYC's Neighborhood School and PS 63, producing stunning results! 

Within just a few weeks, the co-located schools reduced their cafeteria garbage by 85% and composted all food waste locally! Our project decreased environmental toxins, green house gas emissions, and garbage related costs for NYC schools and government, turning school cafeteria waste into potential assets. 

Since then, cafeteria Culture has taught our award winning “ Cafeteria Ranger” service learning programs to over 9,000 pre-K- 12th graders in 22 New York City (NYC) schools. We start by teaching “Garbology 101,” connecting our garbage to environmental justice, climate change and marine plastic pollution. Then students take on leadership roles as Cafeteria Rangers during the lunch period to oversee all sorting.

In 2015, to scale the program up, Cafeteria Culture launched our free, online,multimedia SORT2save KIT so every school can start their own cafeteria Ranger program!
SORT 2 SAVE
Teach your students
​to sort recycling and organics
with this fun song!
Watch on Youtube ->; Watch on Vimeo ->
Picture
​Start a CAFETERIA RANGER program
at your school
8 steps
​with videos, signs, badges
and letter templates downloads
all free ->
​
Watch on YouTube->; Watch on Vimeo ->

Design Thinking
Students at PS 221 K designed their own new school food plates! Cafeteria Culture shared ideas with the NYC School Food directors. Marla's design included higher walls (sides), which actually became part of the new compostable plate design.
Climate Change storytelling
Cafeteria Culture Director, Debby Lee Cohen and bear puppet, Icy, teach 2nd graders at PS 34 M how climate change connects to our garbage and how students can take action every day in the cafeteria to reduce garbage!
Picture
PS 372 The Children's School Waste Audit, led by Cafcu team members, Atsuko Quirk and Rhonda Keyser with the help of students!
Cafeteria Rangers
PS 221 K Toussaint L'Ouverture Cafeteria Rangers
design detectives
Picture
​
DONATE | ABOUT |MICROPLASTIC MADNESS|PLASTIC FREE LUNCH| Take Action Toolkits|EVENTS
Youth Advocates |Contact 
​
​  Twitter @CafeteriaCu    IG @CafCu   FB CafeteriaCulture   TikTok @CafeteriaCu

Our VISION
We envision a plastic free, equitable zero waste future where landfill and incinerator garbage as we know it no longer exists;
where post consumption waste from food to packaging is drastically reduced
and what remains benefits our schools, communities, and the environment. 


Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) is a Project of The Fund for the City of New York, a 501(c)(3) organization.
As such, your donations to Cafeteria Culture
are eligible for charitable deductions under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.
Cafeteria Culture is a vendor of New York City Department of Education via Fund for the City of New York


Copyright © 2023 Cafeteria Culture
  • About
    • About
    • Team
    • Our Story
    • Reports
    • Press
    • Partners
    • Contact
  • MICROPLASTIC MADNESS
    • MICROPLASTIC MADNESS
    • Host a screening
    • The Plastic Pollution Crisis
    • Creative Team and Credits
    • Movie Feedback
  • Plastic Free Lunch
    • Plastic Free Lunch
    • FAQs - Plastic Free Lunch Day
    • PFLD School Food Service
    • Action Plan ideas - PFLD
    • NYC Plastic Free Lunch Days
  • Take Action Toolkits
    • K-12 Toolkit - Plastic Free Lunch Day
    • K-12 Toolkit - Microplastic Madness
    • DIY DATA ACTION litter cleanup >
      • DATA +ACTION litter clean up
      • Student and Teacher Litter Data Collection
    • SORT2SAVE KIT >
      • SORT2SAVE KIT - Cafeteria Rangers
      • Downloads - S2S - Cafeteria Rangers
      • Daily Operations - S2S - Cafeteria Rangers
      • Videos - Cafeteria Rangers
      • S2s Quick Launch Guide
      • Job Descriptions for Cafeteria Rangers
      • SORT2save Cheer! - lyrics + video
      • SORT2SAVE - About, Partners, License Agreement
    • Foam Trays Out of Schools >
      • NYC Foam Ban
      • Trayless Tuesdays
      • No-Styro Puppets
      • FAQs - Getting Styrofoam Out of Schools
    • Alternative Messaging
    • Action at home
    • Action on Policy >
      • Plastic Water Bottle ban NYC
      • NY Bag Bill
  • Donate
  • Youth Advocates Program
  • MORE RESOURCES
    • Resource Library
    • Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Taiwan - Lessons Learned
  • Events
  • Latest - Cafeteria Culture blog
  • Volunteer