Ag In the Classroom Committee Meets
The Ag in the Classroom Committee met 6:45 pm on November 21st and was led by Dakota Cowger with the following members present: Abby Cowger, Dakota Cowger, Nancy Kuhajda, Pam Robbins and Mark Schneidewind, Farm Bureau manager.
The first item was reporting on classroom numbers for this year and that number is 1432 students. Ag Expo for 2025 is set for March 10-13 with set up on March 10th and this will be held at JJC. Four Rivers Summer Ag Institute went well, and their next meeting is set for November 26th. The intern has been busy with the Garden Glove bags where they made it to 46 classrooms and around 812 students. She has also developed a reindeer feed activity including many different foods such as grain and cranberries etc.
The group reviewed who was getting the ag education award at the annual meeting this year. The Foundation’s online auction is being worked on and they have around 33 items to date with a goal of 130. We will have 3 raffles and online bidding begins Jan 20th and runs through Feb 3rd.
Abby provided an update on her Peotone FFA events and activities with the big one coming soon on December 11th with packaging food meals. They have a goal of reaching 17,000 people locally. They have been looking for donations towards this event and would love to get another $9-$10,000 donated by December 1. At the state convention they had 17 new kids participate. Someone from the Peotone FFA received an American FFA Degree. They have begun early talking stages of expanding the ag program but have many items to look at and consider. They are hosting a public speaking night, the same night as meals and this will allow other FFA chapters to participate in the food effort.
Nancy reported that she is now an educator in the education position. She is working on a U of I approved volunteer management teaching program. She has set 39 programs for the 3-county area, and she is working on a growing your own groceries program which is featured online. This effort will include food recipes for each food crop. She is working on another seed fest with the Midwest food bank. She also started a new initiative on gardening at your home where each receives a 5-gallon bucket and they plant it. She developed curriculum for a foods program and Illinois Ag will feature hand harvest and machine harvest and has 23 schools signed up. She is working to host a global food program with Agriculture as a class offering and she will be working with Peotone FFA. A new program is one on food recalls and the facts and figures and how this system works. She has 22 new volunteers and has kept her gardens through the youth program using the raised beds for growing food.
Dakota spoke on several meetings he attended at the District and State level and they are working on a program this summer which will become available in 2026 with Route 66 the theme. He is serving on this planning committee surrounding foods. They will come up with some FFA acquaintance ideas soon.
The group set up their next 2 meetings which will be February 4th at 6:30 pm at the Farm Bureau office and May 20th at 6:30 pm at the Farm Bureau office.