5th Grade Ag Education Program

Volunteers needed to make classroom visits

New York Farm Bureau's Foundation for Agricultural Education is getting the ball moving on its project "New York Agriculture -- Touching Our Lives Every Day!" This project provides a multi-faceted program to increase the awareness within 5th grade students of farming, career opportunities, agricultural products and the agricultural infrastructure. Funding has been provided for activity books, cafeteria posters, and an interactive classroom assembly program, but volunteers are needed to go into the schools and carry out the activities.

Food Service Directors in schools throughout the state have been contacted, as the Foundation is looking to them to take the lead role in implementing this campaign in their school. The agriculture activity book will be shipped to these Food Service Directors, as will posters to be used at their discretion.

To implement this program in the classrooms, a format and a toolbox have been created to guide volunteers through the 20-minute presentation. However, a lack of volunteers could potentially limit the potential success that this program could achieve. The foundation is seeking volunteers to make use of the available tools and training to make the presentation within the classrooms. Those interested should contact the Foundation at 518-436-8495.

Also included in the program are six exhibit units available for use to showcase agriculture. Each unit includes a variety of materials that can be used for any number of different exhibit opportunities, such as fairs, business development conferences, school programs, local meetings, etc. These resources are easy-to-use and convenient tools that provide a time-saving and efficient means to accomplish more positive exposure for agriculture.