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DENTON – Caroline County eighth graders were treated to a mild, calm autumn day outdoors Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, to discover more about agriculture during the second annual Ag Day at the Caroline County 4-H Park near Denton.
Kids lined up to climb up in the cab of a John Deere spreader, raised their hands to ask how much money could be made as an ag drone entrepreneur, patted a variety of farm animals, and learned the importance of pollinators.
Hosted by University of Maryland Extension, Ag Day was part of Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week in partnership with the Maryland Departments of Agriculture and Education.
“Everything's going really good so far. Great weather,” said agronomist Dr. Travis Ford of UMD Extension. “Everything's really well organized this year.”
Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Atticks, Maryland Farm Bureau Executive Director Parker Welch, Caroline County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Derek Simmons, and CCPS Supervisor of Food Services Beth Brewster attended the event and welcomed the students.
“It's about making sure that you, your families, your neighbors, people across the state, people across the country and world have food and can eat,” Atticks said.
Brewster, considered a state pioneer in the homegrown school meals movement, and her team provided boxed lunches to students and welcomed them to the Williams Building to taste local foods like watermelons, lettuce, applesauce, and zucchini bread, and to connect the dots between their rural county’s agriculture and the food they eat.
The state’s annual celebration encourages school districts across Maryland to include local food in their school lunches, celebrate farmers and watermen, and help students better understand the connection between food and farms.
Multiple farmers and businesses joined the effort to teach the middle school students about agriculture and potential ag careers. Students visited 12 educational stations and hands-on activities focused on four themes: Ag science technology and equipment, animal science, food systems, and land and water.
“I love it,” said CCPS Supervisor of Instruction William Gray. “It's a great opportunity for the kids to get out and learn a little bit more about agriculture.”
“I think agriculture is probably the base of everything that we do here,” Gray said, who hopes that, by learning more, “it'll keep them here and give them opportunities for jobs here.”
Echoing that sentiment was Lindsey McCormick, CCPS Director of College and Career Readiness. “Students are seeing the whole process from raising animals and crops to the processing of that, to preparation of the food that’s truly farm to table,” she said.
McCormick said the learning stations were a “great pathway” to think about career opportunities in agriculture they might not have considered. CCPS has an agricultural animal science program at Caroline Career and Technical Center (CCTC).
Students gravitated towards the many kinds of animals on site. They also asked questions about and interacted with the ag drone, the pollinator station, the milking simulator, and the aquaculture station and how oysters are harvested with the aid of underwater drones. Lessons in school all week focused on agriculture.
“Last year, we did a pre-survey and a post-survey, and we had like a 40% to 50% increase in kids that said that they knew more about agriculture after the event, compared to before the event,” Ford said. “They see farms, but most of them aren't connected to farming families.”
The week’s culminating activity was a small group-generated poster, as well as an essay contest with prizes awarded to the top three essays from both Lockerman and Colonel Richardson middle schools.
“The kids are super engaged this year. I love it,” said Ana Byrd with UMD Extension. “Our educators are doing an amazing job. What I would like to have more of next year, and something I'm going to focus on, is getting more of our community involved.”
