Dallas ISD reduces plastic waste by celebrating National Plastic-Free School Lunch Day

In one day of meal service at Dallas Independent School District, (Dallas ISD) the dining team saved 123,301 pieces of plastic cutlery and other plastic serving materials from going to the landfill. The team accomplished this by participating in National Plastic-Free School Lunch Day, an initiative that was started by middle school students in New York and then was quickly implemented in all New York public schools. Soon, other schools got involved and now it’s made its way across the U.S. Dallas ISD first got involved in 2022.

During Plastic-Free School Lunch Day, which took place on Nov. 22, The dining team at Dallas ISD replaced all plastic materials with biodegradable options. While plastic items were still available upon request, the event was still successful in significantly reducing the number of plastic materials used during meal service.

The goal behind the initiative, according to Deborah Rowley, executive director of food and child nutrition services at Dallas ISD, was to help spread awareness about the importance of sustainability.

“We just want to encourage students to make their impact in sustainability. And then we also just want to make the community aware of what we're doing to reduce plastic, even if it's just for a day,” she said.

National Plastic-Free School Lunch Day came to fruition through a partnership with Urban School Food Alliance, a non-profit that shares best practices and resources to large school districts. The organization encourages all urban school districts in the country to participate in the initiative.

Since first participating, planning the day out has become more seamless, said Rowley, who noted that at the beginning, it was a bit of a learning process.

“As we get used to doing this initiative, we're able to plan a little bit better, and then we can bring in paper products or compostable products to test,” she said.

The now-seamless process ensured that there were no major challenges this year, said Rowley.

While planning the event, the team got together in several meetings to put things into motion, but they also received help from other resources. For instance, non-profit Cafeteria Culture, which helped launch the first Plastic-Free School Lunch Day, provides an array of helpful resources including marketing materials and lesson plans about sustainability.

When the school district first got involved, there were some difficulties, said Melinda Hillis, assistant director of food and child nutrition services, especially when it comes to sourcing compostable materials.

”It was kind of like a trial and error in the beginning, and now it's pretty seamless, because we already have our plan set, and it's a plan that works for us,” she said.

The team also works on a special menu for the day of the event, focusing on hand-held or grab-and-go options.

The dining team was also quick to get on board with Dallas ISD’s efforts to reduce plastic waste.

“Staff embrace this initiative,” said Rowley.

The team has also put a big marketing push behind National Plastic-Free School Lunch Day— the marketing team does social media outreach, and they share information on Dallas ISD’s website. In addition, the initiative is mentioned in newsletters that go to parents and staff.

The success of National Plastic-Free School Lunch Day has inspired the team to host another Plastic-Free School Lunch Day event, in April.

While National Plastic-Free School Lunch Day only lasts one day, Dallas ISD has been considering eliminating plastic serving materials for quite some time, but there are some barriers.

“We do look at it every year. Our trays are sustainable, all of our serving trays are,” said Rowley. “But we monitor costs every year, and we do test items from time to time to see how they hold up. But right now, cost is the driving factor”

Cost isn’t just a concern for the school district itself either. Hillis said that through feedback, they’ve noticed that most of the concerns when it comes to sustainable dining are cost.

Dallas ISD’s sustainability efforts don’t end with reducing plastic waste either, another big focus for the dining team is local sourcing.

“We work with our STEM environmental services to educate on local produce as a way to reduce carbon footprint,” said Hillis.

Menuing plant-forward options has also been a focus for the school district. For instance, the dining team is doing more recipe testing for meatless options.

The team is looking forward to the April event as a way to bring more awareness to sustainable dining, and given the success of the Nov. event, they aim to use a similar plan.

“We just hope that we're making an impact nationally as well as locally, and then teaching our students the importance of sustainability,” said Rowley.