TENNESSEE

State Contact: Mr. Charles Curtis Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation P.O. Box 313 Columbia, TN 38402-0313

P: (931) 388-7872 ext. 2215 F: (931)388-5818 E: ccurtis@tfbf.com Website

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Classroom Resources
County Farm Bureau Agricultural Literacy Library activities

Major Program Accomplishments
Our summer institutes continued to be successful. More of our materials (VHS Videos, notebooks, brochures, etc.) were converted to formats that were delivered by compact disk; both CD-rom and DVD. This allowed us to use smaller containers for our resource libraries that were given to teachers. This also saved money over our conventional delivery methods.

Farm Days sponsored by County Farm Bureaus continued to strengthen the tie between the local schools, farms and AITC program. A new project was initiated that provided books and activities to county Farm Bureau volunteers to use in classroom visits. Another project provided grant funds for counties that develop a farm tour program. Twenty-five grants were awarded totaling $11,880 for farm tours. Funds were generated by the sale of Tennessee Country: In The Land of Their Fathers a coffee-table book featuring photos and essays about Tennessee. The book was commissioned by two of Tennessee Farm Bureau's service companies and provides 100% profit to the grant program.

The Foundation's fundraising efforts continue to attract new donors and find new avenues for raising funds. The golf tournament broke records for participation and funds raised.

The Farm Bureau Women's two cookbooks continue to sell. The Vol. I book is in its third printing. The books are sold through the county offices as well as phone orders handled in our state office.

The Tennessee Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom provides grants to schools that establish outdoor classroom gardens. Fifteen schools received funds this year to start or continue their garden projects. Many schools that have been funded for projects in the past have continued their projects with local funding.

Major Program Impacts
All of the teachers participating in our summer institutes said that they intend to incorporate AITC materials into their classroom activities. This represents a minimum of 7,500 additional students being introduced to agriculture’s role in our society. 60,000 students participated in farm tours. Volunteers representing production agriculture, agriculture businesses and associations developed displays to share with teachers and students at sixty-nine locations.

By providing training to Extension Agents, the Foundation extends the reach of AITC materials to Tennessee's 328,086 4-H members. Lesson plans are distributed online and on cd-roms to agents. Since our 4-H program is still in the schools, contact with students is maintained through teachers, agents, volunteers and AITC staff. Our Extension Agents do not list their time separately for the AITC activities since they are an integral part of 4-H.

Our partnership with the Tennessee FFA Association and the Tennessee Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association allows our materials to be used in a mentoring program. Agriculture Education teachers use our materials in their classes to reach the 31,337 students enrolled in Tennessee's various agriculture courses. The students use our materials during mentoring opportunities with younger students during visits with elementary and middle schools. These opportunities are also excellent recruiting tools for attracting future students into agriculture education.