The Mission

Boundless Reuse’s mission is simple, to promote, assist implementing and maintaining reusable foodware in K-12 schools and other institutions and to help our partners make sustainable environmental improvements in their meal services.

Values

  • Youth Voice should be empowered to make the sustainability changes

  • School workers, particularly in Nutrition and Custodial Services, should be uplifted and a key part of a system change process

  • We want system change not Climate Change

  • All food packaging should be non-toxic

  • Feeding people (particularly the young) is one of the best things a human can do.

  • Food waste is wrong and preventable

  • School meal reuse is a good way to instill environmental stewardship at a young age

  • Stainless Steel is superior to durable plastics for reuse

What we have Accomplished

  • Over 2.7 million school meals served on reusables over three school years since 2023

    • Over 8 million single-use packaging products displaced (or never made).

    • Over 175,000lbs of waste displaced

  • Over 40 school sites launched reusables with assembly involving student participation

  • Provide a viable non-toxic (low/no plastic) option for school meals

  • 2 academic papers published about reuse and nutrition

Our Services

  • Book a call to talk through the transition of the school meal to something more sustainable and environmentally friendly, namely through reusables. I provide tailored and flexible advice about what to expect and some common barriers around the transition.

  • Boundless will help you with everything around transitioning. We provide support through liaising with principals and the school community, purchasing, equipment setup, scheduling, performing (assemblies), and onsite monitoring. We will also provide ongoing check ups with the school sites as well. We want to keep it as easy as possible for school nutrition departments, we just need them to pick out the foodware and give us a date, and we can start exploring what reuse at school can look like.

    We charge on a sliding scale, but usually ask for $100/hour and most schools will take around 50-75 hours to complete. If not in the SF Bay Area, we are open to traveling to school sites to provide these services.

  • Want to learn the best practices? Boundless Reuse is happy to teach you. Learn about how to get the conversation started with a variety of audiences and also strategies of engaging with school nutrition departments and boards around moving the needle to reuse

Boundless Reuse’s Approach

Every school is different. Every school district is different. It is important when working with schools to be hyper-flexible and adaptable. Schools are generally under resourced and being able to fill in where there might be gaps is important part of the approach. The school community is also very diverse and have many competing needs. The work is long term and, hopefully, self-sustaining.

Uplift the workers

Most of the school workers want to support, positive sustainability initiatives where they can. Showing them a low barrier way to achieving these initiatives is often all they need to adopt the project.

Stay Curious

Every school we transition to reuse we learn something new. It is important to remain open to new information that can help sustain other schools on their journey to reusable packaging.