Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation

The mobile Agriculture education science lab is available for schools to increase student awareness about the importance of Agriculture in their daily lives. The mobile science lab provided Agriculture education to 163 schools during the fiscal year.

Usda outreach and education initiative will promote Agriculture enterprise development, expansion, and sustainability among veteran farmers throughout Pennsylvania. Foa has partnered with the pa veteran farming project on this three-year project. The project will engage and empower beginning and future farmers who are veterans, equipping them with tools to build profitable and sustainable agribusinesses in the commonwealth. Through resource referral, education, and mentoring, our target audience will: (1) gain awareness and understanding of usda and other federal, state, and local resources and programming; (2) learn to navigate and access the sometimes-confusing web of technical assistance available locally and regionally; (3) improve their understanding of, and successfully obtain, financial resources such as grants, loans, and cost share program funding. (4) convene annual statewide veteran farming summits, host 5 workshops throughout Pennsylvania each of the three years and create a veteran-to-veteran mentoring program, ag allies. The project will reach a minimum of 300 eligible veterans resulting in at least 24 new farms as a result of grant activities.

The ag-in-the-classroom teacher workshop is a one-week course to educate teachers (k-12) how food moves from the source to the customer. Teachers then use their personal experiences and information they have received to integrate Agriculture into their curriculum. Ag-in-the-classroom educated 33 teachers during the fiscal year.