Community Outreach

Agriculture Awareness Day

Since its establishment in 2009, Ag Awareness Day events at the Southern Piedmont AREC have grown into highly anticipated annual educational opportunities for third and fifth graders. This award-winning program now draws students from Nottoway, Lunenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Dinwiddie, Amelia, and Prince Edward counties.

For third graders, there are 15 diverse learning stations where they can participate in hands-on activities such as paper making, vermicomposting, using simple machines, and milking dairy cows.

Fifth graders engage in learning about the math and science behind baking bread, along with taking part in various hands-on activity stations covering topics such as animal cells, DNA, oobleck, and the apple/earth.

Group of Volunteers for 3rd Grade Ag Awareness Day

Children with colorful blocks and test tubes doing science experiments.

Group of volunteers for 5th grade Ag Awareness Day

2 week old lamb eyes boy with hay in hand

Planting a seed into a cup of soil at Ag Awareness Day.

Ag Awareness Day Community Partners

The Ag Awareness Day events are made possible by the invaluable support and dedication of volunteers, staff, and community partners including :

Brickland Hatchery
Central Piedmont Master Naturalists
Fort Barfoot
King Arthur Baking Company
Piedmont Soil & Water Conservation District
Richlands Dairy & Creamery
Rocky Hills Farm LLC
Society of St. Andrew - Virginia
The Dairy Alliance
Triple R Dairy
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station
Virginia Cooperative Extension
Nottoway FFA Chapter
Virginia Department of Forestry
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
Virginia Farm Bureau Federation
WestRock

Family and Farm Day

Family and Farm Day has been held annually on the second Saturday in September since 2005! Everyone is welcome to enjoy the fun in a family atmosphere while learning about Virginia’s largest and oldest industry, AGRICULTURE. Test your navigating skills in the corn maze. Express your artistic abilities making grain art and pine cone bird feeders. See sheep, goats, cows, chickens, and alpacas. Milk a cow, hold a live fish, learn how bees make honey and about spinning yarn. See what we make from peanuts, soybeans, corn, wheat, and cotton. Refreshments are available for purchase on the premises.