By Amy Gauntz, Starmont FFA Advisor
The smell of the grill fired up, sun shining and birds chirping would lead one to think that
spring is here! Boy is that true, but it sure didn’t feel like it. It was a cold blustery day on Tuesday, March 19 when the FFA members hosed a “Field to Fork” supper for families in grades K-6 at Starmont.
The FFA Chapter received a $1,500 grant to use with the after school program to promote agriculture. As a final wrap up to all of the six lessons that we have taught the younger students, we invited students along with families to take part in our “Field to Fork” taste it supper night. On the menu for the evening was something from each of the six commodity groups that we presented to the kids. Beef-Sirloin Steak; Poultry-Chicken Breasts; Pork-Tenderloin; Sheep-Ground Lamb; Corn; Soybeans-Soy Milk; along with a baked potato and Jell-O cake. It was our goal to have everyone taste one of each food item to get familiar with those food products we so often don’t choose in the store to buy.
After the meal we conducted a short program about the activities that we had been doing in the After School Program. We invited the kids who attend the program up on stage to share some of their favorites about each commodity group.
The purpose of our grant program is to educate students and their families on where their food comes from and how it gets from the field to their fork. We wanted to familiarize the students with the cuts of meat they eat every day, career opportunities within each commodity group, and ultimately promote such a wonderful industry: AGRICULTURE!
