About 3,000 Missouri and Kansas FFA students will converge on the Western Farm Show next month in Kansas City to help fight hunger and further their agricultural education.
"We talk to them about careers in agriculture, we provide a scholarship for a graduating senior that's going into agriculture," said Jeff Flora, CEO of Southwestern Association that puts on the Western Farm Show. "And then we just talk about what's available at the show and who they ought to maybe visiting and that sort of thing."
The FFA Associations from both states are partnering with the Western Farm Show to help build hunger awareness, said Flora.
"We've got the Kansas FFA chapters competing against the Missouri FFA chapters as to who can raise the most food for Harvesters [Community Food Network]," Flora told Brownfield Ag News.
Both associations are supporting the National FFA's "Feeding the World, Starting at Home" initiative while participating in what's now known as the Missouri-Kansas Border War Food Drive.
"People who are going to be working in our industry, a lot of them come through the FFA chapters, so it's a really nice pipeline for us to be a part of what FFA is trying to do and hopefully help our members and our industry too," he said.
FFA members are encouraged to bring canned and nonperishable food items on Western Farm Show FFA Day, Friday, Feb. 22, for donation to Harvesters Community Food Network. In addition to bragging rights for the state association that collects the most items, a $500 prize goes to the individual chapter that brings in the highest total.
The Western Farm Show is Feb. 22-24 at the American Royal Complex in Kansas City.
Source: brownfieldagnews.com