By Carrie Muehling
BLOOMINGTON – Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) efforts just got a boost in McLean County.
The McLean County Farm Bureau (MCFB) is one of just four county offices in the country to receive an “Our Food Link” grant sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation Women’s Leadership Committee. The grants are designed to support programs that help connect people to where their food comes from. The $1,500 will support AITC programming in McLean County.
“We’re going to develop 12 learning kits for different categories so, for example, there will be one about fruits and one about vegetables, one about machinery, one about technology… all designed to tie agriculture in with those topics and help people understand where their food comes from and also some of the technology that’s used in agriculture,” said Anna Ziegler, MCFB assistant manager.
MCFB employs a part-time AITC coordinator and the University of Illinois Extension employs a full-time AITC coordinator in McLean County.
Ziegler said the kits will cover beef, pork, dairy, wheat, corn, soybeans, soil, fruits, vegetables, machinery, biotechnology and nutrition. Each kit will contain books and lessons plans for a specific grade level, as well as resources for hands-on activities. MCFB also plans to post videos related to the kits on a YouTube channel featuring McLean County farmers.
“Agriculture is a great source of non-fiction reading for kids, so that’s a good fit for the teachers to provide them with that material,” said Ziegler.
Coordinators also plan to produce a McLean County ‘Ag Mag’ and purchase a document camera to use during teacher workshops.
AITC resources are provided free to teachers. More information is available by calling the McLean County Farm Bureau at (309) 663-6497.
Carrie Muehling can be reached at carrie@wjbc.com.
