Title
Supervisor Thomas recommending the Board:
1) Find that a public benefit is derived from all Supervisorial Districts sponsoring “Ag in the Classroom’s Farm Day Event” at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds on May 7, 2024; or
2) If community funds are not available in specific Supervisorial District allocations, approve any amounts up to a total of $5,000.00 from participating Districts; and
3) Approve and authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to sign a Funding Agreement, consistent with the County’s standard form and upon the approval of County Counsel, with Ag in the Classroom authorizing payment of a $5,000.00 community funding contribution.
FUNDING: General Fund.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
For the last 20 years, El Dorado County Ag in the Classroom has hosted thousands of our local third graders from Lake Tahoe to El Dorado Hills for a day of hands-on, place-based, agricultural education. We hold two annual Farm Days to increase our reach with our county’s youth: spring at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville and fall at Camp Richardson Historic Resort in South Lake Tahoe.
Farm Day is a fun, hands-on field trip where students and teachers across our county experience the sights, sounds, smells and feels of agriculture and its role in our everyday lives, our county, and its economy. Registration is open to all third grade classes in El Dorado County.
Throughout the day, students and their teachers rotate to 6-8 different learning stations taught in the context of local farms, ranches, forests, and watersheds to learn about farms, natural resources, food, nutrition and animals. Learning Stations are presented by organizations, businesses, and persons who are experts in their field.
Examples of the topics include: Nutrition; Local Produce & Food Preservation; Composting & Soil; Working Animals; Ag Animals; Fiber Animals; Invasive & Beneficial Insects; Milk & Dairy; Healthy Forests & Resources; Watershed & Irrigation; Land Stewardship; Career Tech Education and much more teaching the students where their food, fiber and shelter comes from.
Whether listening to a goat’s heartbeat, witnessing milk being processed from a live cow, searching for the queen in a hive while wearing beekeeping gear, tasting and preserving local jam or watching huge forestry equipment load logs, Farm Day brings to life, for thousands of 3rd graders, the extensive contribution agriculture has in our lives, families, communities and economy.
For the very first time, our South Lake Tahoe 3rd grade students will be joining the West Slope 3rd grade students in participating in Farm Day at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville thanks to a grant that Ag in the Classroom received from the Tahoe Women’s Community Fund to pay for the transportation and registration fee for all South Lake Tahoe 3rd graders. In the past, South Lake Tahoe has participated at a much smaller Farm Day event in the Basin from 2013-2019. Farm Day 2024 will provide a unique opportunity for all our County 3rd graders to come together to discover how important agriculture is to their daily lives as well as to the culture of El Dorado County.
Last year, the Board of Supervisors found that there was a tremendous public benefit in funding Ag in the Classroom’s Farm Day 2023, and the $5,000 community funding contribution came out of the District 3 allocation. Since all five Supervisorial Districts will be participating this year, the request is that all District’s contribute $1,000 out of their 2023-24 allocation. A funding agreement is required in order for the County to process the payment to Ag in the Classroom to support Farm Day 2024. Approval by the Board provides the finding that a public benefit is derived from supporting this endeavor by becoming an event sponsor at the $5,000 level.
Farm Day 2024 will be held on Tuesday, May 7th, and will provide the Board of Supervisors (BOS) who wish to attend and participate the opportunity to do so as the 2024 BOS meeting calendar has been approved and there will be no Board meeting on this date.
ALTERNATIVES
The Board could choose not to approve this joint funding request.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
23-0336, 2/14/23
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
N/A
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The Board of Supervisors allocated $75,000 in Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget in General Fund - Other Operations (Department 15) to be available for community funding requests supported by the Board. Approval of this item would allocate $5,000.00 from this amount. Each Supervisorial District would authorize $1,000 from their 2023-24 allotment. There is no additional impact to the General Fund due to the approval of this agreement.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
N/A
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Good Governance and Healthy Communities
CONTACT
Supervisor Wendy Thomas