Kandice Lumpkin, right, creates seed packets to share with young students and teach them where their food comes from.
Growing up, Kandice Lumpkin spent a lot of time helping her grandparents in their garden. Through the process of planting seeds, watering the garden and harvesting vegetables and herbs, Lumpkin cultivated a love of gardening.
When she was named Miss Warner Robins Outstanding Teen in 2019, she aimed to use her experience and platform to instill that same passion in her community.
“I wanted to use my platform to teach kids where their food comes from,” she explains. “I thought it would be really cool to go into schools to talk about how our fruits and vegetables go from farm to table.”
Lumpkin, who is now a senior at Perry High School in Perry, Ga., worked with her FFA advisors to identify local schools with greenhouses and make connections with teachers to offer the classes.
“My FFA advisors helped me come up with a plan to teach the students and deliver my message,” she says. “They were very supportive through the whole process.”
Since 2019, Lumpkin’s agriculture advocacy program has grown and evolved. As part of the program today, Lumpkin creates custom mixes with seeds from her grandmother’s garden. Each mixed packet of seeds includes easy-to-grow vegetables and herbs like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, basil and cilantro. Lumpkin teaches students how to plant the seeds and care for their plants.
“It’s a fun project for young students, and they all love playing in the dirt,” she says. “If you know where your fruits and vegetables are coming from and you get to grow them, you might be more tempted to eat them.”
In addition to teaching students about sowing seeds, watering tender plants and providing lots of sunlight, Lumpkin also teaches students patience.
“They expected the vegetables to be ready by the next day. We explained that it takes a while for them to grow,” Lumpkin says.
The effort has been so popular that Lumpkin was invited to Atlanta to meet with Georgia’s agriculture commissioner, Gary Black, about ways to share her knowledge and seed packets with more organizations, including food banks. She also hopes to share information with other FFA chapters interested in replicating the project and to train members of the Perry FFA Chapter to take over the classes when she graduates next year.
“There are a lot of students who possess the interest and character to take it over,” she says. “I hope the classes will still be offered after I graduate because it’s important for students to know where their food comes from.”
