Ag in the Classroom Committee Meets

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The Ag in the Classroom committee met on Thursday, Nov. 16, and was led by Dakota Cowger, with the following members present: Abby Cowger, Mark Jones, Nancy Kuhajda, Patrice Sharkey, Kelly Reus, Jill Ostby, and Mark Schneidewind, Farm Bureau manager.

Dakota covered current numbers through October, and we have reached 786 students with no duplication. Ag Expo is set for March 12-14 with set up March 11 10 a.m. The “Hold the Date” notice was sent out to teachers, and the RSVP will be out in our next newsletter. They will make new banners, need to ask LuAnn for beef; Dakota has dairy covered; will get JJC for hogs but will check with Julie first and get an air purifier for wheat room. We have 4 new grinders for the wheat area. We need to ask Gloria to see if she can do the nutrition booth. We should have JJC students assisting, as it is not spring break.

Tri-County Summer Ag Institute is being changed to 4-Rivers, and they will meet January 8 to begin planning and have targeted April to begin signup. It will be 4 days but split into 2 days in June and 2 days in July as requested by the teachers. They discussed the ag education award and selected who was to receive it at the Will County Farm Bureau annual meeting in January. The Will County Farm Bureau Annual meeting is January 27, and the FFA will assist with kids’ bingo. We need cards and chips for the cards to mark off for the kids bingo. The FFA will do the flag presentation and help serve ice cream.

Auction is online again this year. We have 3 raffles this year and will have 3-4 live auction items. Donations need to be received by the first week of January, as we will take pictures the next week to place the auction online. We need to contact Larry Lorenz on the live auction part.

Ag advisory updates: Nancy stated the kids in garden program are getting at least 30 minutes a week in green house experience in the areas that have green houses like Union School; Elwood Garden program doing well with 300 students as is St. Rays; and she is adding 9 new community gardens in 2024. Arbury Hills has an animal club.

Abby reported she has 191 ag students and is doing 4 intros to ag classes with class size 18-26. Food classes are making meals weekly. The passport night had 200 people attend; horse judging team did well; had 12 attend the National FFA convention, Peotone High School FFA was presented a 3-Star FFA Chapter award which places them in the top 300 FFA Chapters in the country. The FFA did farmer/elevator goodies bags with the help of Compeer Financial and Farm Bureau November 4, with 80 students assisting handing out the bags and several had a gift card for a free pizza at Casey’s as part of the we are 96%.

Great pictures were shared by the Farm Bureau and the FFA chapter. They are celebrating their 90th anniversary as an FFA chapter November 19. Mark Jones, as the Farm Bureau intern through the Foundation, presented what he had worked on and his new idea on the snowman which everyone liked. They will make about 50 wreaths; they have collected 500 pounds of food for helping hands, and making pillows.

Dakota reported on the state meetings he had attended, and they received grant money of around $8,000 for the 2024 year.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m. The next meeting is set for Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m.

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