Members of the Buckeye Valley-DACC FFA chapter and participants in the agricultural science program’s land lab enterprise have donated over $7,500 to the Buckeye Valley Food Pantry this year as part of the chapter’s “Farmers Feed Our Needs” program.
Every year, members collaborate with local input suppliers and service providers to donate the seed, fertilizer, and machinery needed to raise 13 acres of soybeans on the school’s land lab while students provide the labor. All of the income from these acres is then donated to local food causes. For the last several years, all the money has been donated to the Buckeye Valley Food Pantry to keep the funds as local as possible.
Isaac King, a senior BV-DACC agriscience student, appreciates what the school’s land lab offers students, “The school farm gave me many opportunities, from seeing the production side of agriculture and applying classroom knowledge in real-time to being part of a program that was founded on a gift from the community and now uses that gift to give back to others.”
Buckeye Valley’s William H. Powell Land Lab consists of 309 acres near Radnor, Ohio. The land lab was willed to Buckeye Valley to provide agricultural education opportunities to students in the district.
Ohigro and DEE Lehner Farms are due a special thanks for donating inputs, harvesting, and hauling as part of the “Farmers Feed Our Needs Program.”