Our school calendar boasts monthly Green Team meetings, but what is the Green Team, really?  It is a school-sponsored club that works in conjunction with Frying Pan Park to serve the community and the school through nature and conservation initiatives.  From humble beginnings with about 20 student members seven years ago, the Green Team’s membership has grown to 65 students for the 2019-2020 school year. 

Led by teacher coordinators Mrs. de Kramer, Ms. Irwin, and Mrs. Potter, the Green Team maintains a vegetable garden at Frying Pan Park, where they group food for the Floris Elementary salad bar, through the Farm to School partnership.  Students plant, tend, and harvest vegetables and quite literally see the fruits of their labor in their cafeteria shortly thereafter.  Additionally, the Green Team maintains Virginia habitat gardens in the Floris outdoor classroom, helping to enrich the curricula of their fellow students.  In order to reach even more of our growing student body population, the Green Team also coordinates school-wide efforts for recycling, conservation, and Earth Day activities. 

This past weekend, October 19-20, the Green Team volunteered to work at the Fall Harvest Festival at Frying Pan Park.  Park educator Marge Landis voiced her appreciation of their volunteerism, saying, “on Saturday, the kids were so helpful: giving tours, harvesting and planting.  On Sunday, the rain was cold and constant, but it cheered us to have friends show up and be part of the activities.”  The relationship between the Floris Green Team and Frying Pan Park is truly a symbiotic one, which Floris Elementary School is hoping to see further grow and thrive.