March is Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month (CALM).
While the event has been put on for the past six to seven years, this is the first time that it’ll last the entire month. It’s expanded from one week in previous years due to its growing interest.
Karen Carle is an Ag Education Consultant out of the Alberta Agriculture & Forestry office in Red Deer.
She told the AM 610 Newsroom that CALM is done in partnership with the program Agriculture in the Classroom, and is funded through Farm Credit Canada.
“The program allows kids to learn where their food comes from, and how it’s produced,” said Carle. “This year, we do a month long of different activities. We have producers going to the classroom to talk to the students, and we have resources available. There’s all kinds of different things happening through the month.”
(Picture/classroomagriculture.com)
The theme this year is called “Our Food, Our Story.”
“We’re really trying to connect kids with their own personal food story,” she said. “So, one of the things we have that’s new for this year is the Twitter Live contest. We want kids to be talking about how they connect with food, and it could be something about growing food, or even a favourite meal. And they can then enter a contest, for a prize of $250 for their school.”
Carle says any school interested in participating in this program can find a variety of resources available for students and teachers.
“We have a resource called “All About Food” for Grade 7 to 9,” said Carle. “And that just covers a variety of food and agriculture topics. And we also have a couple of story books for elementary school students as well.”
She says they also have programs up in the Peace River area as well.
“Up in Peace River, I know that the classroom agriculture program has volunteers that go into classrooms,” she said. “That typically happens during Agriculture Literacy Month, and throughout the spring. (Schools) can get in touch with the classroom agriculture program, if any teacher would like to have somebody with an ag background to come in. This program is typically available for Grade 4 kids.”
Carle says anyone who wants to get in touch with her about this program can contact her at her office, at 1-403-340-5339, or by email at karen.carle@gov.ab.ca.
– Posted by BET
