“My grandfather used to say that once in your life you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher but every day, three times a day, you need a farmer.” -Brenda Schoepp. 

Since starting in 1985, Farm Day is long standing program in Christian County 4-H that is provided to all first-grade students in the Christian County Public School System, Private Schools, and Homeschool. Luckily this year we were able to have an in-person program offered to all the schools with a great response. For the 2024 Farm Day a total of 799 students and 120 teachers and volunteers attended during one of the two days offered and represented the 8 elementary schools found in Christian County. 

According to the Kentucky State Data Center, in the 2010 decennial census 69% of the population in Christian County reside in an urban setting while 31% are rural.  As a result, many of the youth in Christian County have not experienced a farm and do not know where their food comes from. In 2018, Farm Day was revamped to meet this need. Stations were designed to educate students on food products and/or services that come from each animal or grain. As the participants traveled through each station, the group leader collected an item that represented their station. After visiting each station, the student visited the “Farmer’s Market” where they learned about MyPlate and eating healthy while playing a game from the LEAP curriculum. Along with learning where their food comes from, many of the adults and students learned about the agriculture resources that are found in Christian County, like that we are called the Battle Capital of the World. One of the first-grade teachers was quoted “Students enjoyed seeing and learning about new things. A lot of the students have never been to a farm or seen farm animals in person.”

This year each student was given a worksheet to write a sentence about their favorite part of farm day, what they learned, and to draw a picture. We received many of the worksheets back with students learning things about chickens, tractor engines, and pigs.