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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.
School nurse teaches health and agricultural literacy
Gena Byrd is more than the school nurse at Snow Hill Primary School in North Carolina - she's the unofficial agricultural literacy coordinator. She promotes good health through the work of Snow Hill's garden, complete with 18 raised beds, starter plants in a greenhouse and a fishpond.
Gena Byrd

"As a nurse, I wanted a creative way to teach nutrition that would be exciting and memorable for the children," Gena said. "What better way to do this than to have the children grow their own food! The children had a hands-on experience growing vegetables from a seed to being able to taste it in a salad."

Important goals of Gena's school garden project are to bring locally grown foods into the lunchroom, provide opportunities for children to see and experience where food comes from and to promote making healthy food choices. While learning about nutrition, students have even participated in taste tests of different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables.
raised beds and greenhouse














The school's garden and Gena's hard work also help promote
community involvement and pride to students. To raise money for the garden, students made and sold wreaths from a fir tree that was cut down when the garden was being established. They also sold copies of a cookbook called "Planting a Seed for the Future," created based on garden activities with the students.

"Each class was assigned a food item," Gena explained. "They had to learn three facts about their food, come up with a healthy recipe using their food, and have an educational activity/lesson plan about their food item."

The garden is growing more than food - interest in the garden project has reached Washington, D.C. officials. When U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Kevin W. Concannon visited the school garden in May, he told the local newspaper, The Standard Laconic, "We can point out and say I've been to a county, a rural county, where they're doing great things in terms of feeding their kids, doing it creatively, and in the process educating them to life sciences, if you will, where food comes from, and why it's important we eat healthy."

students learn during USDA official tour



















Gena also received a White Reinhardt teacher scholarship in 2011. During the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference she showed enthusiasm for the agricultural projects showcased. She was selected to help create the educator's guide for "How Did That Get In My Lunchbox?," this year's AFBFA Book of the Year.
Many thanks to Gena for continuing to share lessons of nutrition through agriculture!