FFA Grant Helps Private-School Chapter Grow
Funding is fundamental to running an agricultural education program. But for private schools, finding adequate resources has an added layer of complexity. “We don’t have the same access to state funds like public schools,” says Jerry Taylor, agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at Athens Christian School (ACS), the first private school in Georgia to receive an FFA charter. “And private schools aren’t eligible for many grants.”
Enter the FFA Living to Serve grant. ACS became the first private school ever to receive an FFA charter and has received the grant each year since 2018. These three yearlong grants are twofold: They’ve helped expand the school’s decade-old agriculture program while also providing food for the community.
In 2018, Taylor used the grant money to build raised vegetable beds to supply produce for the school’s lunchroom. “The kids will actually try vegetables they’ve grown … even the broccoli,” he says. The produce grown also gets donated to the local food bank and homeless shelter.
“It was so heartwarming to see the kids serve at the shelter. People were so thankful,” Taylor says. “The kids still talk about that as their favorite activity, and one of our current officers wrote on her application that she wanted to be an officer so she could go back.”
With the 2019 grant, the chapter bought a chicken coop to expand its community food program, adding farm-fresh eggs. The 2020 grant will go toward an aquaponics lab.
“It’s great for the students to serve the less fortunate and help where there is a need,” Taylor says. “But growing [the food] shows them that it can be done. Seeing that it only takes a small space, some will go out and build their own [gardens].”
That kind of ripple response might not have been possible without the Living to Serve grants or without agricultural education in private schools, Taylor adds. “I really think other states should consider putting chapters in private schools to get more students involved in FFA,” Taylor says. “A lot of private schools don’t have tech prep programs. But teaching these students about where their food comes from is really important.”
