Northeast Community College Students Build Hands-On Connections to Agriculture During Fall Farm Fest

Understanding where food, fiber, and energy come from helps build confident and aware consumers. Nebraska Farm Bureau's (NEFB) Promotion and Engagement (P&E) Committee connected with students at Northeast Community College (NECC) to help these "first-time" grocery shoppers explore agriculture at the first Fall Farm Fest.

Nearly 200 students flocked to the Pohlman Agriculture Complex on NECC's campus to discover the vastness of agriculture. The goal was simple: have students gain knowledge about how agriculture affects them every day. To accomplish this, students experienced ten stations that focused on different aspects of agriculture. From climbing the career ladder to connect how their future career might connect to agriculture, to cutting playdough to learning how little of the Earth is used for production agriculture, to reading food labels, students were connecting agriculture directly to their daily life.

In a post-event survey, students said they learned things like "there are more cows than people in Nebraska," and "1/48th of the Earth is used to produce food." Students were excited to learn, and volunteers loved seeing those "ah-ha" connections be made.

"Fall Farm Fest was a great way to have students from all degree paths engage hands-on with agriculture," said Dawn Kucera, NEFB Ag Promotion At-Large state board member and P&E committee member from Madison County. "You could see the lightbulb go off for students as they learned that agriculture truly touches every part of their life. It was awesome to see that realization be made while students were having fun!"

More than 25 volunteers from across Farm Bureau programs came together to give students the opportunity to engage with real farmers and ranchers.

"A member-driven event that helps bridge the gap between producers and consumers - what more could you ask for?" said Abby Samuelson, NEFB director of member engagement. "I am so proud of our members for seeing a need to help college students understand where their resources come from and working together to create something great! This is grassroots advocacy in action!"

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