Students from four different schools in the Aspen View Public School Division made their way to the Athabasca Hutterite Colony and the Agriplex to see first-hand how food is raised.
Landing Trail Intermediate School, along with Rochester, Boyle and Grassland schools, participated in the annual Farm, Food and Safety Day June 6. The event was put on by Athabasca County.
Trent Keller, the county's farm production specialist, said they had quite a big turnout at this event.
"We had somewhere between 180 to 190 students participate," Keller said. "There were four groups of classes from LTIS, along with one class each from Rochester, Boyle and Grassland."
Prior to the day itself, Keller said the county went to the schools to offer a classroom introduction to the farm, and its way of life.
"We started with what we call the classroom agriculture program," he said. "So we spent an hour with each class and gave them a run-down of what it looks like. We take grain samples, we take all kinds of things into the classroom and show them what it looks like."
Keller added the June 6 activity was the hands-on portion of the learning.
"They get to come out to the farm and actually see it," Keller said. "This includes some of the things you can not really bring to the classroom, like piglets, ducks, geese, dairy cattle, and those kinds of things. So they get to see it hands on exactly where the food is coming from, and the care that is taken to raise them."
Each location had seven displays, where each group spent about 13-15 minutes learning about from both Athabasca County employees, as well as from students of Athabasca Colony school.
At the colony, life-long resident Darius Gross said its great to see all the students coming through year after year.
"We love to see them get educated about farming, and show them what it's all about," Gross said. "Some kids have never seen a little pig, or have even been to a farm. For one group a couple of years ago, one teacher mentioned she's never seen a pig alive, just in a storybook."
At the colony, students got to see the piglets, chickens, dairy cows, as well as geese and ducks. They also got to visit the butcher shop, and they learned about grain safety, as well as telling the difference between poisons and every day products, such as water, gaterade, and even laundry soap.
After lunch, students went to the agriplex to learn about safety, including around dugouts, tractors, fish and wildlife, power, germs, fish and wildlife, as well as vision impairment.
Elizabeth Siemens, who teaches grades 4-6 at Rochester School, said learning about farm safety is extremely important to the school.
"Even though we are a rural school, we are seeing fewer farm children enrolling, and even less who know about how to be safe on the farm, and where their food comes from," Siemens said. "Though this program, we hope to see more of students gain this knowledge, and give them another perspective about life on the farm."
One of her grade six students, Angelina Semrok, said she really enjoyed seeing all of the different set-ups at the event.
"I really liked climbing up the walls of the dugout set-up," she said. "It showed us how tough it is to get out if we ever fall in. I also liked seeing all the animals at the colony. They were really cute."
