02 Aug 2022 Central Arkansas students beef up agriculture and nutritional knowledge

By Judy Riley

“This was the best day ever,” commented several second-grade students who recently participated in the Farm to You exhibit at Sidney Deener Elementary in Searcy. Teaching kids about local foods and the value of those foods for their bodies is the purpose of this traveling display available to Arkansas schools through the Cooperative Extension Service, part of the University of Arkansas System, Division of Agriculture (UADA-CES).

Created in 2013, Arkansas Farm to You is an interactive exhibit, giving students an opportunity to explore. The 10 stations begin with an introduction to many foods produced in Central Arkansas. “People care about the food they eat but may not always know how it is grown. When we can make the connection from farm to table, we value our food even more,” according to farmer Dana Stewart, who led the first exhibit, Farmer Dale’s Farm. 

Students then make their way through various adventures, including Milk Processing Plant, Market, Café, and on to the Mouth, Stomach, Small intestine, Muscle, Bone, and Skin. At each station, students spend about six minutes participating in activities and learning about the connections between agriculture, food, and health.

Katie Cullum, White County extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences at UADA-CES, worked with school personnel on scheduling, curriculum, setup, and reporting. Teachers and school administrators work with the community to provide at least 10 volunteers to lead discussions. Cullum often recommends using high school students involved in Family and Consumer Sciences classes as volunteers. Younger students often relate better to teens than adults.

Brittany Holeyfield and Lindsay Wilson, who work at Sidney Deener Elementary, coordinated getting all Searcy second-graders involved. Holeyfield said, “It is a great resource for enriching students’ understanding of healthy food choices, farming, and specifically Arkansas foods. The activity heavily correlates with the literacy curriculum that is widely used in many Arkansas schools.” She said she and other teachers originally thought this would be a typical exhibit, one with some posters, handouts, and folks explaining things, but they soon discovered Farm to You is different. The students actually interact with the props, everything from selecting the vegetables they will eat to examining a drawing of a skeleton to see where milk calcium is stored.

According to Arkansas Farm to You Coordinator Angie Stewart, the exhibit reinforces the “Serving Up My Plate” (developed by the United States Department of Agriculture) classroom curriculum provided to the UADA-CES. Overall, the goal of Farm to You is for students to learn: that farms provide food for good health, about foods grown in Arkansas, about how to make healthy food choices, that food is broken down into nutrients, and that physical activity and personal hygiene are important for good health. It’s really a journey, a journey of discovery, and the students love it!

The messages delivered through Farm to You utilize research-based information and incorporate the missions of the collaborating partners. The UADA-CES makes the exhibit available to all schools in Arkansas. Schools that are 50% or more free and reduced-price lunch are eligible to participate in the UADA-CES Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed) program and can receive the exhibit free of charge as part of the program.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, only 3,000 students participated last school year, but in previous years, the total was well over 13,000, according to Stewart. She adds that to reserve a time for your school’s participation, the best pathway is for the school administrator to contact the family and consumer science agent in their local Cooperative Extension Office. Arrangements can be made for volunteer support as well as payment, if required. Contacts for each county office are available through Arkansas Extension County Offices/Cooperative Extension Offices in Arkansas. Visit uada.edu.

From the farm product in the field to the food on our table, Farm to You is quite a story, and one that needs to be told. And what a clever, concise, and interactive way to tell it! Farm to You is available to all schools in Arkansas.