By Carrie Muehling
DECATUR – Growmark and its FS member cooperatives continued support for Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom programs with a $70,000 donation during this year’s Farm Progress Show.
Amy Bradford, corporate relations manager, and Growmark Foundation manager, presented a check to representatives of the IAA Foundation and Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom.
“We do have a lot of FS employees across the state of Illinois that are involved in their local Ag in the Classroom coalitions – their county coalitions. They not only help take some of these funds and distribute that throughout the local level, but they also spend a lot of their own time,” said Bradford. “They go into the classroom and they tell the agriculture story and we really believe that our financial support in conjunction with our in kind work through all of our members at the local level, that just expands our reach a little bit further.”
Growmark’s annual contribution directly supports 70 County Coalitions across the state of Illinois. Twenty-nine of those coalitions have an FS representative on the local advisory council.
“It’s more than just a newspaper going home with them or a flyer about agriculture, but somebody stepping in front of their classroom to talk about all sorts of agriculture, from science to language to social studies to even mathematic concepts, linking agriculture in those areas,” said Kevin Daugherty, education director for Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom.
Daugherty said last year saw a seven percent increase in the number of students reached in Illinois, and that number continues to grow.
Carrie Muehling can be reached at carrie@wjbc.com.
