Reusable Utensil Program Starting This Week!

Cherry Crest Elementary is pleased to announce that we are switching to reusable utensils in the cafeteria, through a grant from Department of Ecology and City of Bellevue.

We estimate this will save more than 47,000 disposable plastic utensils from the landfill in one school year.  If you see any of these new school utensils at home or in a classroom- please send them back to school so they can stay in the cycle.

Please share this exciting news with your child.

• Launch day is this Thursday January 27.  There will be additional adults at all lunches to assist with announcements, help students place reusable utensils in the correct bin and to make sure none are thrown away.
• Students will pick up a fork or spoon when they get their lunch. We encourage them to take only what they need. For instance, if the lunch is chicken nuggets and carrot sticks, they shouldn’t need any utensils. This will minimize staff work washing utensils and reduce water and resource use.
• When students are finished with lunch, they will deposit reusable utensils in a soak tray that will then be transported to the kitchen dishwasher to wash for use the next day.

Thank you for working with us to reduce waste!