District-level project
Six schools created great pollinator (butterfly) gardens for secondary schools and 5 elementary schools do raised garden beds. There is a demo garden open to the public at Lyonia Preserve (in the Duke area) that is free and open to the public. It is planted with native plants. This was grant funded and student created.
Elementary Schools
Westside Elementary, Daytona Beach
Students enrolled in our Westside’s Night Alive after-school program have the opportunity to grow and harvest vegetables. They get to enjoy their harvest by tasting the vegetables after they’ve been prepared by cafe staff. Occasionally, they even get to bring some of their veggies home to share with their families. The WNA program is funded by a 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) grant to provide academic and enrichment services throughout the school year to targeted students, families, and the community.
Turie T. Small Elementary, Daytona Beach
Courtney Folkerts wrote a FUTURES grant for a gardening program. She plans to start the garden this month. The grant is to work on plant reproduction with the 5th graders in science. The students will plant a garden with vegetables and fruits. Students will measure growth and note the different stages of development!
Cypress Creek Elementary, Port Orange
A class is working with a parent volunteer master gardener who set us up with vermiculture – we have tons of red wigglers in the room where we feed them and wait for the nutrient rich “worm tea” to add to our box gardens. We have milkweed plants planted in various locations on campus to support the monarch butterfly population.
Edgewater Public School (elementary level), Edgewater
The “green” initiatives at Edgewater Public School are varied. There are solar panels that provide all of the electricity to our barn. The panels allow the school to have lights, fans, outlets for power tools and Internet for the web cams. The hydroponics system is inside, and students grow different crops including basil and lettuce. The wind vane isn’t really green, but it is neat!
Sugar Mill Elementary, Port Orange
Sugar Mill Elementary composts and recycles dead plant material into healthy compost to put back into our gardens, saving water and waste products.
Therapeutic Edible Gardens calm students down in areas throughout the school, it teaches them how their food is grown, and allows them to take edible foods home.
The Spruce Creek High Key club mentors our Environmental Club members and assist with recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans and keeping a tally.
School Wide Cleanup and Beautification with Environmental Club students pick up trash items and help keep the school clean.
Pathways Elementary, Ormond Beach
Pathways Elementary’s green initiative focus began in 1999 with the addition of their greenhouse. More recently the initiative has included the addition of 11 raised beds, a composter, and updated hydroponic systems. Students attend Gardening/STEM as a special area where a hands-on approach is encouraged as they tend to the day-to-day responsibilities of maintaining a healthy production of pollinators, fruits, and vegetables. Ongoing partnerships with UF/IFAS extension agency, Slingerlands nursery, and master gardeners keep students involved in virtual nutrition programs, introductions and availability to familiar and unfamiliar plants, and a variety of engaging lessons. Ultimately, conservation, respect, and responsibility for the wellness of the Earth, today and in the future, is the program’s goal.
Orange City Elementary, Orange City
The VPK program has a garden.
Citrus Grove Elementary, DeLand
The school has a wonderful garden located near their outdoor classroom. Through various grants and collaborative initiative with University of Florida and Stetson University, Kindergarten and 1st grade students learn about nutrition through the development of this garden. These classes care for, plant and reap the benefits of this garden throughout the school year. Ms. Olivia Noboa, Mrs. Katie Pappas, and Mrs. Derstine are the teachers involved.
George Marks Elementary, DeLand
Ms. Beth Mott and Ms. Kelly Long will be starting a hydroponic garden with funds from a Futures Mini Grant this spring. It is the first phase in a long-term plan to develop various types of gardens around the new school grounds.
Osceola Elementary, Ormond Beach
The Ormond Beach Garden Club and two local Master Gardeners have taught and supported the Osceola Elementary garden for several years. The program will restart once the pandemic is passed.
In the past two years, second graders and fourth graders worked with the Master Gardeners weekly during our special area PE time along with our PE Coach.
Osteen Elementary, Osteen
This is our “Lettuce Grow” tower purchased through a grant from Advent Health. The students are adding the weekly nutrients to the hydroponic system.
Middle Schools
Heritage Middle School, Deltona
Our school garden is supplemented by the FUTURES GRANTS that I write each year. We have a hydroponics section, hay bale gardening section and traditional in ground section. We garden all year long, growing winter vegetables like kale, collards, lettuce, snap peas, broccoli and cabbage in the winter, and during the spring and summer we grow tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans, sunflowers and potatoes. Students plant and harvest, and take home any vegetables that they want. Students learn about soils, fertilizers, growing seasons and how to start seedlings.
High Schools
Spruce Creek High, Port Orange
5 years ago, Spruce Creek High School had an empty courtyard full of weeds next to the parent pick up loop. In an effort to help students see that they can take responsibility for their world and make positive change, Mr. Platt took over the area, raised money and planted a native plant space, with food production areas including fruit trees and an outdoor classroom space. Since then, students in AP and IB environmental science classes, under Mr. Platt’s direction, have taken responsibility for the upkeep for the area which is now a beautiful greenspace on our campus.
The school has an electric car charger in the student parking lot that is connected to solar panels and eco-water bottle refill stations also.
Atlantic High, Port Orange
As a part of our AEMS (Aquaculture, Environmental and Marine Science) Academy, Atlantic High School has a greenhouse, hydroponic garden, butterfly garden, Zen Garden, and numerous planters where students are cultivating fruits and vegetables. Last year, the fruits and vegetable harvested were sold to faculty to support the academy program initiatives. The goal, once covid is past, is to sell at farmer’s market.
Pine Ridge High, Deltona
The modified ESE students have a small garden. The goal is to eventually sell the vegetables to staff. They currently sell sprouts for salads to staff.
