Farm & Home Safety Day 2.0

Marshall County Extension Service has participated for several years in the annual Farm & Home Safety Day for the county’s 5^th grade students. The program is coordinated by the Marshall County Conservation District and involves participation from local groups including Kentucky State Police, County Health Department, Emergency Management, Red Cross, WKRECC, and others. Marshall County Extension has covered a variety of safety topics at this program including bicycle, home alone, internet, and most recently food preparation/storage.

In September 2017, the Agriculture & Natural Resources Agents with the County 4-H Program Assistant provided the kitchen and food safety station. Subjects covered with the 5^th graders included proper use of equipment including knives and microwaves, food storage recommendations, preparation areas, and more. Food storage and safety is a key component of SNAP-Ed focus and one of the reasons Extension Service covers this topic in particular.

Other station presenters covered topics such as electricity, seatbelt, fire, bicycle, ATV, shelter in place, and pets. Typically once Farm & Home Safety Day is over, occasional feedback is received from the schools on what the students learned. This year, one of the elementary schools took it a step further.

Benton Elementary has 80 students in the 5^th grade. According to their teacher, “after attending safety day…they (the students) wanted to have a safety fair at BES. Students chose their topics to research to present with other group members that had the same topic. Some of the safety topics were home alone, gymnastics, cooking, travel, hunting, sports, water and internet.” 

The County 4-H Youth Development Agent attended the BES Safety Fair to see the students “in action.” Several developed PowerPoint slides and/or posters for their presentations. Others had actual demonstrations of proper safety for their topic. As teams they covered a variety of safety issues. It was obvious a lot of research, time, and work went into the presentations. After being inspired from Farm & Home Safety Day, the 5^th grade students used their 21^st Century workforce skills to provide a successful community Safety Fair!