The Green Team

In the community where I live and work, our secondary schools serve students lunch on Styrofoam [g1] trays (roughly 900,000 per school year). The vision I have for remedying this problem begins with one of our secondary schools, which uses about 180,000 Styrofoam trays per school year, and replaces those trays with something more environmentally friendly.

Building custodians and kitchen workers (SEIU members) will schedule a meeting with the principal to discuss the process of getting students engaged in replacing the Styrofoam trays.

We will meet with the maintenance manager to help estimate the cost of dumpster pickups of 180,000 Styrofoam trays.

We will attend the building’s PTA. meeting and engage parents in the process.

We will advertise (signs in halls/intercom announcement) and meet with students and the principal to discuss the problem and plan of action.

We will meet with the managers of food services and student leadership, and help the students articulate the problem and solution and plan a proposal to the district’s administration and board.

Have SEIU members, principal, food service manager, maintenance manager, a PTA representative, and a student present the plan to district administration and board. Make sure every representative who participates in the proposal has a talking point at the presentation. Make sure the presentation begins and ends with talking points by SEIU members. Discuss the possibility of expanding this program to the district's other schools.

This plan will be popular, of low cost to implement, and can be easily reproduced. It would also give SEIU members opportunities to chair meetings and organize the whole community.