logo

 

Join Our Mailing List
Find us on FacebookFollow us on Twitter
Volunteering!
 Watch a video about the garden and volunteering!
logo
 
Do You Know an Outstanding Volunteer or Volunteering Program?
If you know of people or organizations that have made exceptional volunteering efforts to educate about agriculture, the Foundation wants to hear about it. Nominate them at www.agfoundation.org, under What We Support-Volunteers.

 

American Farm Bureau Federation and Foundation volunteers educate about agriculture on Teach Ag Day! 

   

 

March 15, 2012, was Teach Ag Day, and the American Farm Bureau Federation and American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture teamed up to celebrate it! It was a beautiful, early-spring day and volunteers from AFBF and AFBFA walked over to the Department of Transportation Children's Choice garden to help plant early spring vegetables and flowers. The Foundation also brought along a lesson plan to teach the students where the bread in their lunchboxes comes from.

 logo

 

 

When they first arrived, several volunteers worked on preparing the soil in the garden beds. Once the students arrived there were three stations for learning. First, students listened to the story "How did that get in my lunchbox? The story of food" by Chris Butterworth, the Foundation's Book of the Year.

 logo

At the next station, the students put their knowledge to the test. The first section of "How did that get in my lunchbox?" explores how the bread gets into your lunchbox. The story takes the reader from seed to wheat field and from mill to bakery and finally to those lunchboxes. The Foundation, along with AFBF volunteers, set up an activity that allowed students to recreate this process by having pictures of each step. Students were asked to sequence the images to recreate the story of how bread gets into their lunchbox. All of the students did well and were rewarded by being allowed to play with pizza dough.

logo

The students also planted potatoes, radishes, carrots and beets. The students loved to see and touch the seeds and put them in the ground. It was great to see the students beginning to make the connection from seed to food. The students will have lessons in the garden every Tuesday throughout the spring and summer while they tend to the garden.

 

The Foundation thanks the volunteers at the American Farm Bureau Federation for helping to educate about agriculture and teaching students where their food comes from through the experience of planting it themselves.

 

This was a great way to celebrate Teach Ag day! We hope you joined in the cause! If you have a story about what you did for Ag day or Teach Ag day, the Foundation wants to hear it. You could be featured in one of our e-newsletters, on our website and on our Facebook page! Send us your story and some pictures to [email protected].