We hope to empower our children to make a difference and teach them environmental values and healthful habits that will stay with them for life.
Barrow Street incorporates many eco-friendly initiatives into every day school life, including an environmentally-based curriculum and fields trips and projects such as recycling and reusing home and classroom materials, planting and cooking with spices (and soon vegetables!) from Barrow's rooftop garden, taking nature walks through the botanical gardens and surrounding parks, weighing our leftovers from lunch and learning how to bring "waste free" lunches, sneaker recycling, and on and on. Our parents are also active partners with the school, forming the PA Green Team!
We continuously find ways to reduce paper usage (e.g. weekly email updates, electronic forms and handbook), and recycling remaining paper waste from the office and classrooms. We encourage “waste-free lunches” by only using packaging that can be washed and reused—no more baggies, foil or plastic ware. Eco-friendly craft and environment books can be found in our school library. A compost bin has been purchased for the roof to make soil for our new planters; a rooftop vegetable garden is in the works!
We hope to empower our children to make a difference, and to teach them environmental values and healthful habits that will stay with them for life. We hope you will assist us in our efforts to improve our planet and to recycle and conserve!
Please contact our Green Team Chair if you are interested in joining the Green Team. We welcome your thoughts and contributions in any way.
Service Learning Curriculum Guide

Barrow Street believes a solid educational foundation also includes learning about character, ethics and the community. Together with
GenerationOn, we developed a service learning guide. This guide includes lesson plans we created and implemented in the classroom which bring
together service learning and education.
View the guide
Click here or more information on our service learning curriculum component.
Waste Free Lunches
We encourage parents to pack waste-free lunches. Packing school
lunches day after day can be a tedious and seemingly endless chore. With over 53 million children eating lunch in schools across the country
everyday, the real burden is on the planet. According to the New York
State Department of Conservation, a child taking a disposable lunch to
school will create an average of 67 pounds of trash per school year.
How do you make a waste-free lunch?
Instead of wrapping sandwiches in aluminum foil or plastic bags, use a
reusable container that can hold the sandwich as well as fresh veggies
and other treats. Substitute cloth napkins and reusable silverware for
disposables. Replace juice boxes and water bottles with reusable drink
containers. And use a lunchbox or cooler instead of paper lunch bags. Be sure to check some of the
useful links for additional resources for waste-free lunches
Recycled Materials
We encourage parents to contribute recycled materials to our classrooms.
View a complete list of items to contribute.