Styrofoam Out of Schools (SOSnyc) / Fund for the City of New York (FCNY)
Mission: Styrofoam Out of Schools (SOS) is a grassroots organization working to achieve healthy, sustainable, zero waste public school cafeterias. Our work is accomplished through innovative partnerships, design based initiatives, cross-disciplinary education and arts programs, waste reduction pilot projects, and grassroots community-based advocacy.
Our first goal is to eliminate polystyrene (Styrofoam) trays from New York City (NYC) public school cafeterias. NYC schools throw away over 850,000 polystyrene trays per day or 153 million per year. SOS’s first major success was to achieve TRAYLESS TUESDAYS as of mid-March, 2010, which reduced polystyrene tray by 20% citywide or 2.4 million per month.
NYC’s school children eat as many as 3 hot meals a day directly off polystyrene trays, a petroleum-based product composed of the chemicals benzene and styrene. Styrene, a suspected carcinogen, may potentially migrate from the polystyrene trays into hot school food. Children who routinely scrape their trays, may be eating styrene directly off their sporks. Polystyrene impacts low income children disproportionately as approximately 73% of NYC’s public school meals are free or reduced. Polystyrene is not biodegradable, crowds our landfills and is a major source of ocean pollution.
SOS works hand-in-hand with a range of interests, building trusting and productive relationships to further innovative waste reduction and design-based change. We are working with: NYC Department of Education (DOE) SchoolFood; US Environmental Protection Agency Region II; NYC Public Advocate Bill De Blasio’s Office; National Resource Defense Council (NRDC); The United Federation of Teachers Green Schools Committee; Parsons the New School for Design; Wellness in the Schools; Brooklyn Food Coalition and others.
Qualifications:
-Previous experience with using Twitter, Facebook, other social networks, and blogging;
-Knowledge and strong interest in issues of school food reform, waste reduction, and sustainability;
-Strong organizational skills;
-Ability to work and communicate well with a diverse group of stakeholders ranging from public school students to government officials;
-Video editing skills helpful (Final Cut)
We are currently an all volunteer staff. This is an unpaid internship. I have worked with NYU interns for over the past 20 years via my work as a set./puppet designer in theater, as well as at HBO Family Programming. A credited internship is definitely possible. I teach at Parsons The New School and it is possible that this internship would involve collaboration with a Parsons design intern.
Reply-To: Max Liboiron <max.liboiron@nyu.edu>