The Power of Partnership

June 21, 2024

Written By Missouri Farmers Care

Amanda Reid, a 21-year veteran teacher at the Concordia school district in Lafayette County, Mo., has leveraged the power of partnerships with the Missouri Farmers Care Drive to Feed Kids and Agriculture Education on the Move™ (Ag Moves™) programs. As an agriculture instructor and FFA advisor, Reid has enhanced her students’ experiences, their leadership development and the activities of the Concordia FFA Chapter. These programs offer hands-on opportunities for FFA chapters and members to “learn to do” and “live to serve” their communities. The achievements of Reid and the Concordia FFA chapter, in addition to Lafayette holding an “Agri-Ready” designation from Missouri Farmers Care, stand as a testament to the transformative power of partnership with the programs.

“Missouri Farmers Care programs are a bonus for any FFA chapter,” Reid said. “They provide financial support, materials and resources, and a great network!”

With Reid’s guidance, Concordia FFA members have developed an outstanding repertoire of activities that have made a significant impact on addressing food insecurity in their community. The Missouri Farmers Care Drive to Feed Kids FFA Mini-Grant program supported the Concordia chapter’s ambitious projects addressing local food insecurity. The chapter’s Back-Snack project, which provides weekend meals for food-insecure students in Concordia schools, has not only helped kids but also supported entire families each weekend. This realization inspired Reid and her students to add additional food security projects to their chapter activities, further strengthening their impact on the community and fostering a sense of pride and accomplishment.

“There used to be food drives at the school until we realized that we were inadvertently asking the very food insecure students to contribute to food collections,” Reid said. A meal-packing event is a more inclusive way for all students to help fight food insecurity in our community because each student can help through the service of their hands.”

Concordia FFA members lead an annual meal-packing event where the entire student body is invited to help pack meals for families in need. Students combine grain or rice, protein, and nutrient fortifiers to create a complete meal for a family of six. During the packing day, Concordia students work as a team to pack more than 30,000 meals, and every meal stays in the community to support neighbors in need. The agriculture department warehouses the meals, which are distributed through the Back-Snack program and two community self-service food pantries, which the FFA chapter supplies. Community members facing need can pick up necessities stocked in part by the FFA chapter.

“I encourage each class to complete a service project,” Reid said. “The self-service food pantries are small, enclosed buildings that an agriculture construction class built a couple of years ago.”

Concordia FFA members are “living to serve” and inspiring their community to serve. Since erecting the food pantries, local churches have added two more to the community, making four pantries available for neighbors in need. The chapter receives generous financial support from local businesses to conduct its annual meal-packing event. A local donor provides hams for Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday bundles, the compilation of which are another food security project of Concordia FFA. Chapter members apply food science knowledge to fully cook meat and sides delivered to local families at Thanksgiving and Christmas. To maximize the meals the holiday bundles provide, the chapter includes recipe cards to help families use leftovers.

“If there is a food security need in your community, the Drive to Feed Kids FFA grant is simple to complete,” Reid said. “This grant facilitates our projects and helps meet needs in our community.”

A fellow agriculture education instructor encouraged Reid to sign up her chapter to become an Ag Moves partner educator. Reid loves to see her agriculture students in action each semester, teaching Concordia third graders. Many of these “student teachers” plan to become agriculture or elementary educators. The chapter’s goal is to expand Ag Moves to the local private school in the future.

“I prepped my students to become teachers for the Ag Moves lessons, but I was completely sold on the program when I took my students to be trained by the Agriculture Education on the Move staff and college mentors,” Reid recalled. “That training gave my students confidence and allowed them to take ownership of Ag Moves as their own.”

Reid’s FFA students have learned about themselves, as well as how to communicate and cooperate with third-grade teachers, as they have taught 10 STEM-focused lessons covering crops, livestock, soil and water conservation, nutrition, careers in agriculture, and more. Lessons align with state learning objectives and provide fun, interactive ways of learning as students complete hands-on activities such as making soybean germination necklaces, corn plastic, butter, feed rations and soil profiles. The FFA members serve as mentors to younger students and make impacts inside and outside of the classroom. The program helps FFA members grow personally and professionally and adds value to the chapter.

“Our Ag Moves student teachers are teaching third graders who can become my agriculture students within the next several years. The elementary students will remember the Ag Moves experience, and we will see those students again in high school. And all I need to provide is some heavy whipping cream and a dozen eggs!” Reid shared, referring to the fact that the Missouri Farmers Care Foundation provides all non-perishable supplies, materials and resources for Ag Moves at no cost to FFA chapters.

Reid and her husband, Garett, are rooted in the Concordia community, where they raised their three kids. They are passionate about production agriculture and teaching others about the importance of agriculture. Reid is a member of the Missouri Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association, a partner of Missouri Farmers Care.

Missouri Farmers Care is excited to partner with more Missouri FFA Chapters in 2024. FFA chapters can sign up as partners with Agriculture Education on the Move at www.agmoves.com. To learn more about Drive to Feed Kids FFA Mini-Grants, visit www.mofarmerscare.com/drive.