MEDIA CONTACT:

Liam Migdail, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau
717-724-9425 | Email

For Immediate Release: March 15, 2021

(Camp Hill) – Elementary school students across Pennsylvania will have a chance to meet real farmers this week and learn how their food makes the journey from farms to their dinner plates.

It’s all part of Pennsylvania Ag Literacy Week (March 15-19), which invites students throughout the commonwealth to learn about the important role farms play in producing the food, fuel and fiber we rely on each day. Now in its fifth year, the annual campaign is organized by the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation, a charitable organization supported by Pennsylvania Farm Bureau that works to promote greater public understanding of agriculture.

“Fewer and fewer families have a direct connection to farming, yet all of us rely on farms daily,” said Pennsylvania Farm Bureau President Rick Ebert, who serves as the foundation’s chairman. “Ag Literacy Week gives students a chance to meet a real farmer in their community and learn about the hard work that goes into producing food for families to eat. The goal is to foster a better understanding of agriculture and the important role it plays in our lives.”

During Ag Literacy Week, Pennsylvania farmers typically visit kindergarten through second-grade classrooms in their communities to talk with students about their farms and read a book about agriculture, which is then donated to the classroom. For 2021, these visits will largely take place virtually, with farmers reading to classrooms via video conferencing programs. This year’s book is “Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish (Tales of The Dairy Godmother),” which tells the story of the hard work that dairy farmers put into producing delicious ice cream.

Classrooms across the state have also been invited to participate in a virtual event on Friday, March 19, featuring Ebert and his good friend, “ice cream farmer” Chuck Fry of Rocky Point Creamery in northern Maryland, whose love of ice cream served as the real-life inspiration for this year’s book. Students will watch a reading of the book by Ebert, enjoy a virtual tour of Rocky Point Creamery and participate in a live question and answer session with Ebert and Fry.

Learn more about Ag Literacy Week and the foundation’s other educational programs at pfbfriends.com.

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