Community Partnerships
MANNA Food Drive
Every year, the students at DuFief participate in the MANNA food drive. This year, DuFief participated in the drive for the month of October. Many students brought in non-perishable items to help contribute to this great cause that helps to eliminate hunger in Montgomery County.
Clothing to Cash Program
The Clothing to Cash recycling program keeps millions of pounds of unwanted items out of landfills. Our school has partnered with Capitol Clothing Recyclers and their "Clothing to Cash" recycling program to reuse, reproduce, and recycle used clothing. School and community members donate old clothes, shoes, sheets, and towels to the bin at our school to reduce the number of items that are thrown away.
The Compost Crew
During the week of November 12th, all of our students participated in composting their lunch materials for a week. The Compost Crew collected food waste and other organic material from the school to be composted and reused. Our students were able to collect four, five gallon bins of food scraps that were sent to be composted instead of going to landfills. Below are snapshots from our PTA newsletters that updated parents on our project and results!
Allentuck Landscaping
Allentuck Landscaping in Clarksburg, Maryland created the Garden for Grade School Grants program to install raised gardens at schools to encourage kids to get outside! The landscaping company asks the community to nominate schools for the grant, and the company holds a vote on social media to determine the winning school. The school with the most votes wins the installation of a cedar raised garden, complete with the company's own organic soil mix, plants, and a presentation for students.
Our school has been the winner of the Garden for Grade School Grants program in Spring of 2016 and 2017. Our school chose to have a butterfly garden installed at our school with Coreopsis, Sedum, Echinacea, and several other species. After the installation was complete, over 80 second graders (just completing their butterfly unit in science) came out to learn more about butterfly gardens.
Our school has been the winner of the Garden for Grade School Grants program in Spring of 2016 and 2017. Our school chose to have a butterfly garden installed at our school with Coreopsis, Sedum, Echinacea, and several other species. After the installation was complete, over 80 second graders (just completing their butterfly unit in science) came out to learn more about butterfly gardens.
SERT
DuFief has partnered with Montgomery County Public School's School Energy and Recycling Team. SERT provides the school with valuable information about our energy and recycling habits and ways to continue to help DuFief run as efficiently as possible. In November 2018, leaders from the SERT team came to our school during lunch to talk about recycling and composting to coincide with our composting week with The Compost Crew. In February 2019, leaders from SERT came out to talk to our fifth grade SERT team to discuss ways to save energy and streamline our recycling efforts. They gave students lots of information that they in turn, shared with our staff and students.
DuFief PTA
The PTA is involved in many "green" projects at DuFief. They have created partnerships with The Compost Crew and Capitol Clothing Recyclers. They have also been involved in having leaders from the MCPS SERT team come out and speak to our students about recycling and composting. We discuss many of the green school projects at PTA meetings, and the PTA shares information about projects in their monthly newsletters.
Girl Scouts
Many girl scout troops use DuFief for their weekly meetings. These groups use the school for different activities, often using our outdoor classrooms for environmental lessons. They have done projects on gardening, as well as picking up trash on our playgrounds and school grounds. This year, the girl scouts also collected donations of old blankets and towels to be reused to keep animals at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter warm.
Artist in Residence
Every year, the fifth grade students at our school team up with an artist to create artwork for our school. This year, our artist collaboration is taking on an environmental twist! Students are collecting bottle caps to create a mosaic to hang in our school. Students will be working on this project with the artist during the week of April 8, 2019. We are excited to see what the final product will be!