The Vardaman FFA Chapter in Mississippi is located in the Sweet Potato Capital of the World. This town produces more than 100 million pounds of sweet potatoes a year!
Each year, the Vardaman community comes together during the first week of November to celebrate its beloved vegetable. The month’s first Saturday kicks off the celebration of the Sweet Potato Festival.
Although Vardaman is a small town, the community helps bring big success to its FFA chapter.
What Is It?
The Sweet Potato Festival is a vast event, drawing upward of 20,000 people some years. This is quite the crowd for a town that is only 1.4 square miles.
Vardaman FFA and its advisor, Amanda Taylor, work diligently each year at the festival to serve the community and help secure funds for the year’s activities. One of the chapter’s major fundraisers is selling potatoes at the annual festival. Through the festival, Vardaman FFA members have met people from Orlando, Fla., to Minnesota and everywhere in between.
Before the festival, local farmers donate sweet potatoes to the chapter. Members pick up the potatoes on Friday night and meet around 6 a.m. the following Saturday to start boxing them.
During the festival, members sell 5- and 40-pound boxes of sweet potatoes. In the process, they learn about the varieties, how long they will keep and how to store them. They also deliver the sold potatoes.
Hard Work Pays Off
Taylor is glad her chapter is backed by such a supportive community. “The farmer’s donations are the backbone of our FFA chapter,” she says. “These donations are how our members are able to attend FFA events across the state.”
Furthermore, Taylor is amazed to find out that many of her members have never left the small town of Vardaman. So, the funds her chapter receives during the festival help to provide one-of-a-kind learning opportunities.
“For some, these [FFA] trips are the first time they’ve had to be responsible for their time and money,” she adds. “Some have never ordered food by themselves or paid for things at a store.”
One of Taylor’s favorite events to take her members to is the Summer Leadership Camp. Not only do her members get to learn about agriculture, but they also gain leadership experiences and interpersonal skills that they aren’t able to obtain in other organizations.
Vardaman FFA members also use funds raised during the festival to make fruit baskets and handwritten cards that are given to individuals in nursing homes around their area. Some of the funds also help to cover the costs for competitions. None of this would be possible without the generosity that comes from the festival.
Farmers are paving the way for the future of agriculture. Although they may never know the impact they have, they play a monumental role in the Vardaman FFA Chapter’s success.
