By Julie Tomascik
Editor

Lampasas County Farm Bureau was awarded a grant from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture to help local students learn more about agriculture.

The grant, totaling $1,000, is one of 10 administered through the White-Reinhardt Fund for Education Program.

Lampasas County Farm Bureau used the funds to purchase several sets of accurate agricultural books for the local elementary schools and the city library.

“Our Lampasas County Farm Bureau board of directors had set a goal of exposing more young people to agriculture,” said Janet Machen, Lampasas County Farm Bureau board member. “This grant is helping us work toward that goal and will help us impact over 1,300 elementary age students every year.”

The county organization purchased five copies of 13 books with the grant funds.

“We have four elementary schools in our county and one city library. So, we purchased five copies of each book,” Machen said. “We tried to purchase a comprehensive assortment of books. They focused on planting equipment, livestock, renewable energy sources, food, farmers and land stewardship.”

Lampasas County Farm Bureau also provided educational resources to go along with the books.

Machen and other board members hope to become more involved in the classrooms by reading the books and helping the students with hands-on lessons.

Having Farm Bureau invest in youth education is a crucial step in developing ag literate students, Machen said.

“So many of our young children don’t realize the origin of our food and fiber,” she said. “We wanted to find fun, easy to read and understand ag-related books for the students to enjoy.”

Prior to receiving the grant, Lampasas County Farm Bureau purchased several accurate ag books, along with the Hank the Cowdog series.

“We want to inspire students to understand where their food comes from and to learn more about the rural way of life and what farmers and ranchers do,” Machen said.

To receive the grant, projects had to initiate new ag literacy programs or expand existing programs for grades K-12.

Other grant recipients were from Arizona, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Utah and Virginia.

To learn more about the grant, visit agfoundation.org.