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Press ReleasesMAY 21, 2003 - PTA Partnership Nourishes Green Lunch ProgramsFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, contact: Amy Hemmert SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – May 21, 2003 – PTA Go Green champion, Jill Buck, and Obentec, Inc. co-founders, Amy Hemmert and Tammy Pelstring, today announced a partnership that is certain to change the way American children do lunch. With the PTA Go Green Initiative pilot program well under way, and with Obentec’s Laptop Lunches starting to appear at lunch tables across the country, this partnership is no surprise. The PTA Go Green Initiative When Walnut Grove PTA President Jill Buck realized six years ago how much waste was being generated unintentionally and unnecessarily in her children’s schools, she decided to take action. “When my children started school,” says Buck, “I realized that we—parents, teachers, and administrators—needed to start modeling environmentally responsible behavior for our kids. National and state PTAs were passing resolutions related to environmental issues, but there was no concrete action plan.” And that’s how the PTA Go Green Initiative (http://ptagogreen.homestead.com/index.html) came alive. Comprised of five GREEN elements: Generate compost, Recycle everything that cannot be reused, Educate students, parents, and teachers on environmentally responsible behavior, Evaluate the environmental impact of every activity, and Nationalize the principles of responsible paper consumption, the initiative provides guidelines for schools but is not proscriptive. “Each school implements the five elements of the Go Green Initiative in their own way, addressing their own local environmental concerns,” says Buck. And that includes establishing partnerships with local businesses and community organizations and, at the same time, hooking into national efforts like the waste-free lunch movement. Waste-free Lunch Programs While the Go Green Initiative has been gaining solid ground here in California and in other select states, the waste-free lunch movement (www.wastefreelunches.org) has been taking hold in schools across North America. Few people realize that a child taking a disposable lunch to school generates approximately 67 pounds of trash per school year, but a quick glimpse into the typical lunchroom trash can will reveal the following: heaps of partially-eaten prepackaged foods, including yogurt, applesauce and pudding containers, juice boxes, pouches and cans, disposable wrappings, baggies, aluminum foil and plastic wrap. But Obentec and the PTA hope to change all that by providing parents with the tools they need to pack waste-free lunches for their children and themselves. The Obentec/PTA Partnership For Obentec and the PTA Go Green Initiative, this partnership is just the beginning. “It is my hope that all 26,000 PTAs in the nation will embrace the Go Green Initiative and create a sustainable culture of conservation and stewardship in every community,” says Buck. “I envision a large community of partners reaching across all boundaries, working together to save the planet, one child at a time.” Obentec’s Laptop Lunches The Laptop Lunch system, the only lunch system designed specifically to reduce lunchtime waste, is made up of two components—an attractive, reusable lunch container and book of creative lunch-making ideas. Inspired by the Japanese bentobox, the Laptop Lunch container in the shape of a laptop computer, features a stylish hinged outer container, four inner food containers and a dip container for sauces, salad dressings, and dips. The Laptop Lunch container fits in backpacks and most lunchboxes and is microwave and dishwasher safe. It comes with a fork and spoon made of stainless steel with attractive plastic handles. The tray-like system eliminates the mess of jumbled containers and makes lunch exciting for kids. The Laptop Lunch User’s Guide: Fresh Ideas for Making Wholesome, Earth-friendly Lunches Your Kids Will Love, is a book of recipes and menus for creative, nutritious lunches that are easy to prepare and fun to eat. It also includes information on the environmental and economic impact of pre-packaged lunches. “Amy and I wanted to create a product that promoted environmental stewardship,” says Obentec co-founder Tammy Pelstring. “By itself, the Laptop Lunch container is just a cool lunchbox. We wrote the user’s guide to show parents how they can pack nutritious, earth-friendly lunches without sacrificing convenience. Prepackaged foods not only contribute significantly to landfills, they also tend to be high in fat, sugar, and other additives, and have been linked to childhood obesity.” Convenience and Cost Savings for Parents A family that packs prepackaged lunches will spend on average $4.02 a day per lunch or $723.60 per school year, while a family that packs waste-free lunches will spend $2.65 a day per lunch or $477.00 per school year. Laptop Lunches make it easy and convenient to realize these savings, and at $20, it pays for itself in just three weeks. Special PTA Pricing Laptop Lunches are currently available at area retailers and online at www.laptoplunches.com. A complete list of Obentec retailers can be found at www.laptoplunches.com/retail.php. Visit http://ptagogreen.homestead.com/Our_Products.html for details on special PTA pricing. Editor’s Note: High-resolution images of Laptop Lunches are available for download at www.laptoplunches.com/press-images.php. |
