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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. Email us your story at [email protected] and include some pictures for us to use OR Nominate them at www.agfoundation.org, under What We Support-Volunteers. O 
Reading is SO Delicious program helps to connect urban students with the source of their food! 
 

 

Getting students to read can sometimes be a challenge. Getting students to understand where their food, fiber and fuel come from is a constant effort from those at the Cook County Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom.That's why this  summer the Cook County Farm Bureau's Ag in the Classroom Program reached out to local libraries to offer activities to complement the Illinois Library Association's "Reading is SO Delicious" summer program.  

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Seeing the perfect tie in between agriculture, food and reading, staff and volunteers from the Cook County Farm Bureau� visited local libraries where they read some of their favorite agricultural books and did activities.  Some libraries and summer camp programs included the Homewood Library where Ms. Jean Rauch read "Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share" to the children and then showed them live chickens, eggs and even a tractor her husband brought to the library.  Quite the sight in this suburb of Chicago!

 

 The program also sent Mrs. Joan Ramsey, along with AITC Summer Intern Brittany Pieper to visit the Burbank Public Library where they read, "Pizza for the Queen." There they made tomato spinners (For tomato spinner project click here pg19) and learned about making a pizza garden.  

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They also visited the Skokie Public Library where they read "Click, Clack, Moo" and made ice cream in a bag and Moo Masks.  They also joined forces with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago to present at two of their  El Valor camps in urban Chicago. There volunteers joined Cook County Farm Bureau to present to 80 campers and teach them about cows,Illinois crops and horses.  Each camper rotated through three stations where each topic was discussed and a craft made that was representative of the topic.  These Chicago children amazed volunteers  with their vast knowledge of agriculture.  This program touched almost 200 children who had not previously seen the connection between agriculture, their food and literature! An additional program is set for August at the Tinley Park Library. 

 

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Thank you Cook County Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom for being an outstanding example of how we can educate about agriculture in our communities! This Reading is So Delicious program helped students connect their food back to the farm. Congratulations on such an amazing program!