At harvest time, dozens of Whiteland Community High School students packed sack lunches for farmers who were stuck in their fields from sunrise to sunset.
Whiteland FFA students have organized community events, and enrollment at agriculture classes at the school has steadily grown since the current adviser began teaching at the school.
The school’s FFA program has been nationally recognized for their efforts.
Whiteland’s FFA was recognized as a three-star chapter in the 2019 National Chapter Award Program from the National FFA Organization.
The program recognizes outstanding FFA chapters from throughout the country that actively implement the mission and strategies of the organization, according to a news release from the school.
These chapters improve chapter operations using the National Quality FFA Chapter Standards and have programming which emphasizes growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture. Chapters are rewarded for providing educational experiences for the entire membership, the news release said.
Whiteland received the highest ranking possible for the first time in school history and will be recognized at the National FFA Convention this fall.
The school’s FFA had received gold in the last few years. All gold chapters move on to the national competition and Whiteland had earned two stars the past few years, FFA advisor Hannah Goeb said.
Last year, the school added activities that Goeb believes helped clinch their third star and led to the highest ranking.
Students who had relatives who farmed and grew up on farms know that harvest time is a busy one for farmers, and they thought of an idea to help.
FFA members packed sack lunches for farmers in their area and delivered them during harvest time. Goeb also organized a weekend retreat where students went to the FFA center and learned leadership skills.
Goeb had noticed in past judging critiques that the chapter could use more community service and other programming, she said.
“These are the newer ones that I think put us over the edge, possibly,” she said.
FFA does a variety of activities throughout the year, including conducting an FFA week in February, taking students to contests, going to national and state conventions and conducting animal days for staff at the school.
The amount of students involved in FFA has grown in recent years and is likely a direct result of more students enrolling in agriculture classes at the school, Goeb said.
When Goeb started at the school about six years ago, 50 students were enrolled in agriculture classes, such as food science and animal science.
This year, more than 300 students are enrolled in agriculture classes or participate in FFA.
Goeb made it it her mission to grow the program after her first year was considered a trial because of declining enrollment, she said.
She added more hands-on activities and allows students to take initiative on some of the things they want to do and learn, Goeb said.
“They are not sitting down stationary and get to get up and interact with each other and doing different kinds of activities,” she said.
The school has since added a second agriculture teacher to keep up with the enrollment.
