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August 2nd, 2023

Milk Dispensers in K-12 Schools

Ben Schelifer (he/him): EDC Food Program Coordinator

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A non-profit organization dedicated to protecting public health from exposures to

toxic chemicals.

We work with large purchasers to utilize their buying power to incentivize the production of environmentally preferable products

www.ceh.org/foodware

Center for Environmental Health or CEH is a non-profit organization that works to remove toxic chemicals from the lived environment and wants to protect people from those chemicals.

So why are we hosting a talk on Milk Dispensers in schools?

Well, that is because we want to help schools move to reusables. Not just cups, but utensils and trays too. In particular, we are finding single-use disposable 5-compartment trays used at many schools contains harmful chemicals and can have negative environmental impacts across their lifecycle. CEH believes moving away from milk cartons is an easy first step towards reusable. We also like promoting solutions which will have positive effects such as cutting down on food waste, saving money, uplifting nutrition workers, and host of other reasons to be paying close attention to the workings of the K-12 school lunches.

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Styrene

PFAS

Attention-Deficit �Hyperactivity Disorder

Delayed Puberty

Obesity

Breast Cancer

Testicular Cancer

Cancer

Genetic Damage

Sperm Damage

Birth Defects

Reduced Fertility

Increased likelihood and severity of COVID

5 Compartment Trays

So, I am going to drop a PSA around some food ware, in particular those 5-compartment food trays. If you look at Expanded Polystyrene Foam (EPS, also known as styrofoam) it has a host of health problems related to exposure, including cancer, reduced fertility and birth defects. We also know a third of the folks sampled, found polystyrene microplastics in their blood.

While styrofoam is getting phased out of many areas, one common disposable replacement also has a host of health problem. Many of these molded fiber products contain a class of chemical called per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or the forever chemical. These chemicals can migrate off of these food ware items, and are associated with ADHD, delayed puberty, metabolic disorders, another host of cancer, and also increased likelihood of contracting COVID and having more severe symptoms.

The take home: Scientists have found that many single-use foodware products contain hazardous chemicals that have been linked to a variety of health complications.

If our goal is serving healthy meals at school, we also need to think about what that food is served on as well.

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Packaging Costs

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

Using all these containers add $0.34 to each meals’ cost. For one school serving 300 students per day, that is an extra $102 cost per day or $18,360 each year.

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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The Reusable Solution

Reusables...

are Covid-safe
are available in safe materials
have a better life-cycle impact
More resilient to supply chain issues
can save money
teach good values

CEH is biased to this solution

https://ceh.foleon.com/ceh/ditching-disposables-toolkit/ditching-disposables/

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https://www.plasticfreerestaurants.org/

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The Milk Carton Conundrum

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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North Star Academy

3-8 School

550 enrolled students
~160 meals per day
Affluent
$0.45 per milk carton

75 schools days

Saved $1600 dollars one to one
Saved $3,000 with predicted amount
90 gallons of milk

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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The Cost savings with milk dispenser

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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Albany, CA Unified

District launch

Three K-5 Schools

1500 enrolled students
~750 meals per day
$0.40 per milk carton

8400 gallons a year

Milk Dispensing

Colder
Higher quality milk
More food Autonomy
Nutritional requirements

POS

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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The Milk Carton vs dispensing

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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The Cost of reusable with milk

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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The Cost of reusable without milk

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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The Cost of outside washing with milk dispensing

https://www.stopwaste.org/resource/milk-carton-conundrum-march-2019

So why talk about milk dispensers? Because cost is another barrier to transition to reusable food ware and we are finding that one of the largest costs for the school nutrition programs are the 8 oz milk cartons. We find that these cartons can lead to confusion about how to sort the waste. We also know these 8oz cartons can lead to students taking more milk then they want or can consume. Do we really want a 1st grader being required to take the same amount of milk as a 5th grader? A bulk milk dispenser at schools can overcome these problems associated with the 8 oz carton. It can also be an in road to getting reusable started at schools.

With that, I would like to turn it over to Anna Dair, The Director of Business Development at Straus Creamery, so she can talk about how school can get delicious straus milk in bulk dispensers. Anna! Take it away!

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Loading Milk Dispensers

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Disposables with Preferred Chemistry

In 2021, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) and Clean Production Action launched the GreenScreen Certified™ Standard for Food Service Ware - a robust way for understanding the chemical makeup of disposable food service ware.

Sets a new safety standard for everyday items like disposable plates and bowls that do not contain toxic PFAS plus thousands of other chemicals of concern.
Helps purchasers to identify single-use FSW products with safer chemistry.
Allow purchasers to be confident that single-use food service ware products’ chemistry is better for people and the planet and avoids known regrettable substitutions.

™ for Food Service Ware