Fifteen-year-old Janna Morse of West Fork and 12-year-old Emma Keller of Little Rock won first place in their respective categories in the 2020 Arkansas Farm Bureau Dairy Foods Contest July 27, after submitting a video introduction and description of their dish to a panel of judges.
Valerie Lawson, a family and consumer science teacher at Clinton High School in Van Buren County, is Arkansas Farm Bureau’s 2020 Ag in the Classroom Outstanding Teacher.
The eight district winners in the 73rd annual Arkansas Farm Family of the Year Program have been selected, representing the diversity of Arkansas agriculture, the state’s largest industry.
Three college students have joined Arkansas Farm Bureau for the summer as interns. The interns will assist several departments within the organization and work to advance their skills, while also learning more about Arkansas Farm Bureau’s grassroots impact within the state and across the nation.
Arkansas Farm Bureau state leaders and policy specialists met via tele-conference Tuesday with livestock producers to inform them about the U.S. CARES Act Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, known as CFAP. Only producers directly affected by the coronavirus who lost 5% or more raising cattle, swine or lambs are eligible for this program. Cow-calf cattle operations are the dominant livestock production in Arkansas.
County winners for the 73rd annual Arkansas Farm Family of the Year Program have been selected. The county winners will be visited by a set of judges to determine eight district winners, who will be announced June 16. The state winner will be announced Dec. 6 at the Farm Family of the Year luncheon in North Little Rock.
Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Women’s Leadership Committee and the Farm Bureau Foundation have donated $50,000 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas to help offset projected shortfalls as a result of COVID-19. The ArFB Women’s Leadership Committee has a lengthy history of support for the Ronald McDonald House, which provides a “home-away-from-home” for more than 38,000 families sent to Little Rock for life-saving medical care for their child.
The Farm Bureau Insurance companies announced Thursday a $500,000 gift to the six foodbanks that cover the state of Arkansas, anchored by the Arkansas Foodbank, which represents 33 counties in Central Arkansas.
Late last week, the Department of Homeland Security designated food and agriculture one of 16 critical sectors in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, and said that workers in those industries should stay on the job. Arkansas Farm Bureau and a consortium of agriculture industry groups have come together to thank Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson for his response to the COVID-19 crisis so far and request that he designate agriculture as essential at the state level.
