NEW LONDON — Superintendent Winfried Feneberg and Principal Tim Stokes are pleased to announce that Simonds School students participated in Plastic-Free Lunch Day (PFLD) in observance of Earth Day.
The Plastic-Free Lunch Day took place on Wednesday, April 19. Students were encouraged to pack a lunch with reusable items and limited amounts of single-use plastics and wrappers to reduce the amount of waste produced at Simonds.
PFLD was created by Cafeteria Culture and Urban School Food Alliance. The event was started by students, as seen in Cafeteria Culture’s movie, “Microplastic Madness.” After witnessing the impact of the first PFLD, students asked for a New York City-wide PFLD, which took place in May 2022. This year, the PFLD was held nationwide.
According to Cafeteria Culture, U.S. school cafeterias serve 7.35 billion meals annually, making a large contribution to the global plastic waste stream. School lunches are loaded with single-use plastics and cafeterias typically generate the most garbage in a school building. Collectively, U.S. school cafeterias have the potential to significantly reduce plastic pollution.
“The Plastic-Free Lunch Day was a great way to get students excited about helping the environment,” said Principal Stokes. “It was amazing to see the effort our school put in to reduce our plastic pollution, and we hope our students will begin to think more about how to keep our Earth clean.”
Trash collected on Plastic Free Lunch Day was significantly less than what is collected at Simonds School on a regular day. (Photo Courtesy Kearsarge Regional School District) 
The amount of trash that is collected during a normal day at Simond’s School. (Photo Courtesy Kearsarge Regional School District)
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