Corporate Social Responsibility
At SLA, our commitment to responsible and sustainable practices extends beyond serving nutritious, high quality meals. Our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives encompass two key areas: environmental sustainability through our Green Apple Initiative and ethical food sourcing through our Animal Welfare Commitment.
Green Apple Initiative
The Green Apple Initiative represents our commitment to environmental sustainability. Through various programs and partnerships, we strive to reduce our environmental footprint while educating the next generation about the importance of protecting our planet.
Take the initiative by reducing waste
SLA has partnered with Better Earth packaging company to offer a biodegradable tray to replace the Styrofoam trays typically used in school cafeterias. We are proud to invest in this environmentally friendly tray to help reduce the waste in landfills, contributed by Styrofoam trays.
Take the initiative in your community
SLA proudly partners with local farms as a source of fresh produce, when available. This allows our students to enjoy produce that was locally grown, all while cultivating business for farms within their community. It's an initiative we take to support agricultural growth in areas we serve.
Take the initiative with cleaner water
SLA thoughtfully chose SFSPac® for its kitchen cleaning solutions. The SFSPac® sanitation system we use offers products that are Green Seal™ certified, meaning they are safer for both students and the environment. Investing in these eco-friendly solutions prevents hazardous chemicals from contaminating the water.
Take the initiative to save our trees
SLA has partnered with an online menu and communication system, Nutrislice, in an effort to reduce paper usage in our cafés. Investing in this platform allows our menus and cafés news to be shared digitally, instead of being printed on mass amounts of paper.
Animal Welfare Commitment
Eggs
We are committed to switching all of our shell and liquid eggs to cage-free by the end of the 2027 school year. In 2025, we switched all shell eggs to cage free. We continue to work with our suppliers, who were greatly impacted by egg shortages in the last year, to identify opportunities to transition liquid eggs and eggs used as ingredients to cage-free.
Poultry
We are beginning to work with our producers and the Humane Society of the U.S. to address the welfare problems associated with the fast growth of broiler poultry. We remain committed to our promise to be 100% compliant with the Better Chicken Commitment.
Pork
We targeted to move our pork supply to group sow housing without the use of gestation crates by the 2027 school year. As a first step, in 2025, we converted 40% of our pork procurement to reduced crated systems known as "group housing." We are continuing to work with our suppliers to identify appropriate producers who source pork from operations that don't confine pigs in gestation crates as we continue to work towards this goal. Our updated target has us working towards reduced crating systems for our full pork supply by the end of the 2026 school year.
Veal
As aligned with the American Veal Association's 2007 resolution on animal welfare, we have eliminated veal produced in veal crates from our supply chain.
Plant-Based Initiative
SLA considers itself a leader in K-12 Child Nutrition serving charter and private schools. While a number of food service providers have supported meat reduction efforts, SLA recognizes that we are the leader in improving environmental sustainability and student health.
SLA will continue to serve meat, eggs, and dairy, and these products will be part of our nation's diet now and into the future. At the same time, SLA will set ourselves apart by making, serving and educating about plant-based meals, an integral part of our core beliefs and values.
This year, SLA has set a goal to expand these efforts by developing menus where one third of meals offered will be plant-based by the end of 2027. SLA will increase the meals offered each year by 10%, beginning the fall of 2025, based on product availability, regulatory changes and pricing compatibility.
In an effort to increase our plant-based menu offerings, SLA will partner with Humane Society of the United States to pilot plant-based meals and marketing. In addition, we actively seek out collaboration with innovative companies and culinary leaders that are aligned with our goals to provide increasingly higher percentages of plant-based options to our students.
We are very proud of the partnership we have with our students and act upon the guidance they provide to formulate our menus.