10 Tips for Environmentally-friendly Lunches

Environmental sustainability has become an increasing area of focus for schools around the country in recent years, and PJA is no exception. In the years just prior to the pandemic, we created a school vegetable garden, a native plant garden, and held a full-day “Climate Summit” in the middle school. Our school participates in the Strategic Energy Management program with Energy Trust and has reduced our electricity and natural gas use on an annual basis over the last four years. In collaboration with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, we are installing a stormwater treatment bioswale – a garden that will filter pollutants from stormwater before it enters Fanno Creek. Beginning last year, we turned our attention to another important sustainability initiative – composting.

PJA is a member of the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition, a network of Jewish organizations that recognize the threat of climate change and have committed to taking action. Last fall, PJA identified the creation of an on-campus composting program as a priority. Not only was the composting initiative an important step in reducing our school's carbon footprint and expanding our school garden program, it also empowers students to address climate change and helps them to understand that the everyday habits that each of us cultivates are of critical importance and, collectively, can make a powerful difference in our world.

PJA received a grant from Adamah to fund the composting program. (Adamah is the largest Jewish environmental organization in North America and seeks “to cultivate vibrant Jewish life in deep connection to the earth.”) During the 2023-24 school year, we implemented a classroom-based program in the Day School, under the leadership of Shahar Eden, and by the end of the year, the amount of food waste that was composted – and kept out of landfills – reduced emissions by the equivalent of 6,600 miles driven in a car! This year, we plan to expand our composting program to include the Early Childhood Education program and the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. We also hope to expand the range of compostable products by partnering with our waste hauler.

Composting addresses food waste, which is a huge problem (and expense) in our country. But it’s not just food waste that causes school lunches to have an outsized environmental impact. As we begin the new school year, it’s a perfect opportunity to think about what we put into lunch boxes and how we can build upon our composting efforts to further reduce lunchtime waste.

Here are 10 tips for more environmentally-friendly student lunches (some or many of which you may already be doing!):

• Use a high quality reusable lunch box rather than a plastic or paper lunch bag.
• Pack food in reusable containers and/or pouches, and consider re-using small food jars for this purpose.
• Avoid purchasing individually wrapped foods and small “snack size” containers of yogurt, apple sauce, etc. Instead, buy larger containers and put a single portion in a small, reusable container in the lunch box.
• Pack condiments in reusable condiment cups, rather than providing disposable cups or packets of ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, dressing, salsa, etc.
• Pack fruits and veggies that are local and in season. This reduces your carbon footprint by shrinking the distance that your food has to travel to reach you.
• Purchase some cheap, reusable flatware to keep in your child’s lunchbox to avoid using disposable plastic spoons, forks, and knives.
• Include a cloth napkin in your child’s lunchbox, rather than using disposable paper napkins or paper towels.
• Pack food that you would want to eat. Food that’s marketed to kids tends to be more highly processed.
• Talk to your child about portion size, and pack only what they’ll eat. Check-in with them see how much of their lunch went into compost, if any.
• Include your child in the selection of food and lunch-packing process, and use it as an opportunity to talk about environmental sustainability.

Have a great school year!