Need a sense of comfort—instead of anxiety? Find it here! With alerts dinging on our phones updating us on COVID-19 every hour, we thought it would be a nice change of pace to have this news report be a happy and hopeful one. In this series we’re calling Happy Flower News, we’ll share about the amazing things the floral community is doing through the power of flowers to spread joy, love, and hope! 

Would You Like Flowers With That?

Our flower friends at Sweet Root Village (SRV) shared joy throughout the Washington, D.C., area March 18 and 19 by conducting a drive-by flower fundraiser for local food banks at the DC Dream Center and Food for Others.

When event cancellations had left Sweet Root’s team with hundreds of unused flowers, they set up a fun (and safe!) drive-by flower fundraiser. We absolutely love and admire their unique approach to this special pop-up event. The drive-by allowed people to stay safely in their cars and receive an arrangement through their window or placed in their trunk and be on their merry way! 

Instead of the usual floral pop-up where flowers are sold to the community for business profit, Sweet Root wanted to sell with a purpose. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, an increase of people have needed assistance in obtaining food, so SRV decided to reach out to the food bank at the DC Dream Center to donate all proceeds from the drive-by. 

“Food banks are top of mind for us right now, so we quickly started promoting over Instagram—and with the help of everyone we know who actively shared our goal, we ended up raising nearly $7,000 in just an hour and a half!”

They made a little stand outside of their studio and set out 150 arrangements to sell to cars as they passed by. The team even collaborated with other local florists, including Kate from Floret & Vine and Haylie from Wander and Whimsy, who also had canceled events and extra blooms to spare. 

The first day was so successful that they completely ran out of blooms! But with the help of their community, DVFlora and Potomac Floral Wholesale provided the team with thousands of stems to be used for a second day of their drive-by flower fundraiser. On this day, the team donated all proceeds to another local food bank, Food for Others. With the help of local florists, they raced to make as many arrangements as they could and came up with 300 designs in just a few hours. (My goodness!) 

On day two, they raised just shy of $6,000, totaling nearly $13,000 in just over two days!

Isn’t it incredible what can be done through the power of flowers? When people rally together with love in mind, magic happens. Way to go Rachel, Lauren, and the whole team at Sweet Root Village—we are so proud of you for spreading love and hope in your community. May we all follow their leading example and share more goodness with the world.

Do you have a special story you’d like to be featured in our Happy Flower News? Tell us the ways you’re Loving the World Through Flowers. Email jacelyn@teamflower.org and share your story today!