Photo Gallery | District named winner in America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education

Students in the Calhoun County Public School District can now work directly with industry agriculture experts. Thanks to the support of local farmers and America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education℠, Calhoun County Public School District received a $10,000 grant to fund a program that will give students the opportunity to learn from local farmers.

America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund, gives farmers the opportunity to nominate a public school district in their community to compete for a grant of either $10,000 or $25,000 to enhance education in the areas of math and/or science. More than 1,000 nominated school districts submitted applications. The Monsanto Fund will invest $2.3 million into rural education through this program.

“Through the grant, students will have the opportunity to tour area farms, touch the soil and see farmers and machinery at work,” said Ferlondo Tullock, deputy superintendent of Calhoun County Public School District. “Through this collaboration, we seek to spark the students’ interests in agri-business and hope to educate the community’s future farmers to prepare for the challenge to feed America and the world.”

After being nominated by local farmers, school districts completed an online application, and finalists were chosen by math and science teachers from ineligible school districts. The America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education Advisory Council, a group of 26 prominent farmers from across the country, then reviewed the finalists’ applications and selected the winners.

“I would like to sincerely thank the farmers in our community for recognizing the need for our children to be involved in agriculture and for pushing us to apply for the grant,” Tullock said. “We need to cultivate young farmers now to take the torch from existing farmers in the future.”

Calhoun County Public School District was presented with the $10,000 grant during a presentation at Calhoun County High School on Friday, Oct. 19.

America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education started with a successful pilot in Illinois and Minnesota in 2011, in which farmers were given the opportunity to nominate a public school district in 165 eligible counties in those two states. The Monsanto Fund awarded more than $266,000 to local schools in 16 CRDs. Now, the program has expanded to 1,245 eligible counties in 39 states. 

America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education helps farmers positively impact their communities and supports local rural school districts. This program is part of the Monsanto Fund’s overall effort to support rural education and communities. Another program that is part of this effort is America’s Farmers Grow Communities, which gives winning farmers the opportunity to direct a $2,500 donation to their favorite community nonprofit organization in their county. Farmers can participate in this program through Nov. 30, 2012 by visiting www.growcommunities.com.