Ag Literacy
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What is MAEF’s Ag Literacy Week Program?
Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation announces March 17-21, 2025 as the 15th annual Maryland Ag Literacy Week.
With the majority of children today being 3 to 4 generations removed from living and working on farms, we believe that it is crucial to the future success of agriculture for children and adults to recognize and appreciate the importance of agriculture in their daily lives.
MAEF’s Ag Literacy Week program focuses on connecting volunteers from the agricultural community to local classrooms with the purpose of increasing student knowledge about agriculture. Each year a new agriculturally-themed book is chosen and an activity developed that reinforces the message of the book. This program educates Maryland youth through the support of volunteers who purchase the agriculturally-themed Ag Literacy Week book to read to elementary students, complete a provided activity with the class and share their personal experiences in agriculture. The book is then donated to the classroom library and the classroom teacher is given additional lessons to expand the student learning.
Participating in MAEF’s Ag Literacy Week is an opportunity for any group or individual wishing to promote and support agriculture to be the face of agriculture in a kindergarten-3rd grade classroom across the state.
The Soil in Jackie’s Garden has been selected as the 2025 Maryland Ag Literacy book. The students follow Jackie and her friends as they discover the importance of soil, plants, pollinators, and decomposers in growing and harvesting their own food. This book takes students beyond the plants growing in the ground to the importance of composting and becoming environmental stewards.
We invite YOU – Farm Bureau members, farmers, ranchers, FFA students, Young Farmers, Commodity group leaders, industry representatives, and other supportive of agriculture to be the face of agriculture in your local classroom!
To find out more about this exciting and engaging program and how you can become a Volunteer Reader, click below.
