Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Honors Union County Schools

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Georgia Agriculture

Blairsville, Ga – Representative from the Georgia Department of Agriculture presented Union County Board of Education with the Georgia Grown System of Distinction Award.

Misty Freeman served as Georgia’s Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black’s spokesperson to congratulate Union County School’s (UCS) Nutrition Program Director Courtney Waller on her efforts to provide students with locally sourced meals.

It’s the third year that the Georgia Agricultural Department awarded school systems for using local produce and meat to teach students about healthy eating. Each year three schools receive the award.

“The Commissioner says ‘just watch, just watch through the year and let’s see what’s going on. Let’s see what’s being done out there,” explained Freeman, when determining criteria for the award. She didn’t attend the middle school day, where the entire school went to the Georgia Agricultural Center and ate an entirely Georgia grown meal.

Georgia Agriculture

Georgia Grown System of Distinction is only given to three schools in the state.

“It was the most amazing event,” said Freeman, “It met all of the national school requirement, which is another whole bucket of worms. In that and really just watching what they do, caring about purchasing local, caring about purchasing local, supporting agriculture, which is our number one employer in the entire state, she demonstrated excellence so far in school efforts.”

Waller and UCS have prepared students to care about Georgia agriculture and eating habits through their efforts.

Next, Frank Riley of the RC&D Council accepted his Partner in Education award and thanked the school for the honor.

Riley’s contributions made events like middle school day and in turn the Georgia Grown System of Distinction Award possible, for UCS. He’s also worked with the hoop houses, drone programs, purchased equipment with his resources to help assist farmers and students in the community.

RC&D council Frank Riley

Frank Riley received a Partner in Education award from the Board of Education.

“Thank y’all, said Riley, “I appreciate the opportunity to accept the award. You don’t see many programs like this working with the school, employees, FFA, any kind of groups around the state that want to do something in the community with Ag, river, and fire. It has just been fantastic.”

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