Berry News

SEEAG Receives Grant From Reiter Affiliated Companies

Source: PATCH.COM | January 23, 2017

Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG), a nonprofit organization that helps young students understand and appreciate the origins of their food, has received a $5,000 grant from Reiter Affiliated Companies (RAC). The grant funds will help SEEAG expand its education efforts through its Journey of Our Food school programs and its annual Ventura County Farm Day.

RAC, headquartered in Oxnard, has operations worldwide with farms in the U.S., Mexico, Europe and Africa, is the largest fresh, multi-berry producer in the world and the leading supplier of fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries in North America.

“SEEAG is proud of our collaboration with RAC,” says Mary Maranville, SEEAG executive director. “We use specialty crops such as the kind RAC grows when teaching kids about agriculture and what it takes to produce the food we eat. Funds from RAC will allow us to extend the breadth and depth of our programs and help us realize our goal of creating a mobile farm classroom that can travel from school to school.”

SEEAG’s Journey of Our Food involves classroom presentations and field trips to SEEAG’s Farm Lab at Petty Ranch in Saticoy. “The program inspires kids to make smart food choices as part of a healthy lifestyle and brings the learning process full circle, from school to farm to table.”

SEEAG also spearheads a STEM Careers in Agriculture program that targets junior high and high school students. Its Ventura County Farm Day is a community event in which over 20 Ventura County farms open their doors to the public. Last year’s Ventura County Farm Day attracted over 5,000 visitors.

To learn more about SEEAG, go to www.SEEAG.org or contact Maranville at mary@seeag.org, 805-901-0213.

About SEEAG

Founded in 2008, Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) aims to help young students understand the origins of their food by bridging the gap between agriculture and consumption through its agricultural education programming. SEEAG’s “The Farm Lab” program based in Ventura County teaches school children about the origins of their food and the importance of local farmland by providing schools with classroom agricultural education and free field trips to farms. Through this program, over 15,000 elementary school students in Southern California have increased their understanding of the food journey. For more information, visit www.seeag.org or email Mary Maranville atmary@seeag.org.

Source: PATCH.COM