DISCLAIMER: The characters Jimmy and Clarissa portrayed in this column are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

It’s Monday. Luckily for you, after a grueling morning of classes, lunchtime has arrived. Ravenous, you walk into Commons II, one of Lexington High School’s two cafeterias. Before you is an array of freshly cut vegetables, including crisp lettuce leaves below a sign reading “Fresh From Little Leaf Farms.” Little Leaf lettuce is locally grown—meaning reduced carbon emissions from transport—in hydroponic systems. This means they grow out of holes in a pipe, with their roots in a water-based solution filled with nutrients.  Not only does this save soil and fertilizer, but it conserves water and can even produce higher yields! 

“Oh, I’ve seen a hydroponic system near the alpacas at the Lexington Community Farm!” your friend Jimmy says as he peeks over your shoulder. 

You and Jimmy have cross country practice after school today, and also need some protein for muscle recovery—and so Jimmy isn’t hangry by four p.m. However, all the specials are marked with the Meatless Mondays sign! You lament to your friend Clarissa—a sustainability nerd—that you’ll have to deal with a hangry, protein-less Jimmy, but she stops you.

 “Meatless nuggets contain plant-based protein,” she says, “which is made much more efficiently and without all the emissions of livestock!” 

“I’ll do anything for some protein right now,”  Jimmy responds. “Let’s give it a try.”

So you grab some and go to pay (without actually spending any money, of course, because school lunch is free!). “Hey, they’re pretty good!” Jimmy says, biting into one as you leave the Commons.

After you finish your meal, you make your way over to a row of large colorful bins, bewildered. Why would the school ever need more than one type of trash bin? You see the LHS Green Team across from you, gently reminding students where their waste should go as they pick out applesauce containers from the green compost bin. You throw in your food waste, paper trays, and compostable fork. Next to it, the blue recycling bin is filled with clear plastic containers. Anything that doesn’t fit those two categories fills up the black trash container. After you sort your trash, you ask Clarissa what this composting business is all about. 

“LHS participates in industrial composting in partnership with Black Earth Compost, a local composting service,” she replies. “The food scraps in the bin are blended and composted along with chitin-rich lobster shells, leaves for organic matter, and wood shavings to create nutrient-rich soil available for use in your garden!” 

“That sounds pretty neat! I wish I could do this at home too,” you reply. 

Lucky for you, the town also runs a free compost pilot program – if you sign up, you are sent a small compost bin to put your food waste in which is picked up weekly just like your trash is! This also means a lot less trash goes to landfills, considering that 35% of the waste our town produces is compostable.

The bell jolts you out of your composting fantasy. The second half of the day awaits – but with a full stomach and newfound knowledge, not even your upcoming time trial can dim your spirits.

This is the story of many a high schooler at LHS, except unlike Jimmy, most don’t have a Clarissa to point out the school’s lunch sustainability initiatives that Lexington has worked so hard to implement. We’re here to tell you to say thank you the next time you see the Green Team, Food Department Head Mr. Silvia, or any food service department worker and ensure these measures—and future ones to come—don’t go unnoticed!