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Cumberland County High School Senior Leilah Crawford raised $14 thousand to purchase ag in the classroom books for every pre-K through third grader in her county. In all she donated 2,500 books with the hopes of inspiring kids to get involved in agriculture, and educate them on where their food comes from.
Thomas Capps
A mission to take ag education to Elementary School. Hello and welcome to Tennessee Home Farm Radio, I’m Thomas Capps.
Leilah Crawford
I think it was just important to me to get the word out there and just tell the kids even if you don’t live on a farm you don’t have a garden or anything like that. The agriculture industry it’s important to you.
Thomas Capps
Cumberland County High School senior Leilah Crawford is making it her mission to make sure kids in her community learn about agriculture. Growing up on her family’s agritourism farm Crawford knew the importance of agriculture and to make sure others did too, she decided to raise money to purchase Ag in the Classroom books for all 2500 pre kindergarten through third graders in her County. An idea that was sparked from attending the Washington leaders conference earlier this year.
Leilah Crawford
I knew I wanted to be involved in agriculture and education. I’ve always loved school, and I’ve grown up in a very agricultural rich background. So I knew that’s what I wanted to be involved in.
Thomas Capps
As you can imagine giving out 2500 books is a big endeavor, and a costly one too.
Leilah Crawford
I raised $14,000 in three months, I met with many local businesses, organizations, I spoke to many Rotary Clubs, many just business meetings. And that’s really how I raised most my money. Of course, my family helped a lot too. But really, most of it came from just local businesses and their interest in growing our future.
Thomas Capps
Crawford sees this as more than just a project. For her, it’s essential in the survival of agriculture.
Leilah Crawford
In elementary school to be quite frank, nobody that I knew, knew how important farmers were in our lives. And that’s also another reason I did this because I’m honestly concerned about our sustainability in the future because the average age of farmers getting older each year and we’ve got to change that. We need to turn that around because we’re going to honestly run out of them. So I felt like getting these books in the hands of these children is really what’s going to grow our future and guarantee us a sustainable agriculture industry and food system for Tennessee.
Thomas Capps
For Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I’m Thomas Capps.
