MOUNT MORRIS, NY – How many kids understand where the food on their table or where the kitchen table comes from? During National Agriculture Week, March 15-19, students throughout New York will be learning about the importance of the trees in our everyday lives.

The fifth annual New York Agriculture Literacy Week is coordinated by New York Agriculture in the Classroom. Ag Literacy Week will be celebrated across the state in second grade classrooms.

This year’s book is the The Tree Farmer written by Chuck Leavell and Nicholas Cravotta which will be read to the class and then donated to the school library. Teachers will also receive a resource packet including additional lessons and information on the timber industry.

Cornell Cooperative Extension and Livingston County Farm Bureau are co-sponsoring this program in Livingston County. If you would like to be a volunteer reader in your local school, please contact Mary Ann Scharmberg, 4-H Educator at 658-3250 or mas327@cornell.edu. If any teacher is interested in this program for their classroom, please contact the 4-H Office at the above phone number.

Another way for volunteers and teachers to help children understand agriculture is involvement in the annual Be Aware of New York Agriculture Contest. For more information about Ag Literacy Day, Be Aware, and other Ag in the Classroom programs, visit the website www.nyaged.org/aitc.

New York Agriculture in the Classroom is a partnership of Cornell University, NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, NYS Education Department, and NY Farm Bureau. The program works with cooperative extension educators, teachers, Farm Bureau members, and others throughout the state to foster an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of agriculture and the total food and fiber system.