WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Student leaders at Purdue University
sported their version of agricultural swag at the second-annual weeklong “See
What Ag Gives” event.
A line of students dawning bright green SWAG shirts,
sunglasses and “swag bags” stood in the muddy grass on the Memorial Mall, where
College of Agriculture clubs met to teach peers what agriculture is all about.
“The goal is to start conversations on campus about the
agriculture industry,” said Amanda Gee, junior in agricultural communication and
media team member of Ag Week Task Force “We’re all students. We all share that
in common. But we all have different backgrounds that may or may not be in ag.”
Passersby interacted with the clubs to answer trivia
questions and play games that sparked discussions about farms. A variety of food
and prizes were given out, including free beef jerky samples from the Block and
Long lines wrapping outside of the tents were proof that
many college students were interested in hearing what the clubs had to say.
“I learned that a cow, in one day, provides a 100 glasses of
milk. That’s a lot of milk,” said Janice Ringler, a political science student
Outside of the tents, students played corn hole and ate
pizza from the Farm Management Club booth. The club gave away free food on
Thursday and discussed what a day without agriculture would look like.
“I honestly don’t think the world would go on or function
without ag,” said Dakota Parent, secretary of the Farm Management Club. “It’s
really important because it feeds people, and there are a lot of products that
people don’t realize ag plays into.”
A Day Without Ag was one of several events held to promote
agricultural awareness. Representation from many student organizations,
including Collegiate Farm Bureau, National Beef Ambassadors, 4-H and FFA, made
Ag Week complete.
According to Gee, the week was a success and had a large
“Milk Monday was the kick off event,” she said. “The Dairy
Club gave away grilled cheese and milk cartons, so that always gets students
interested. Also, this year we had the Hunger Knows No Bounds event in Mackey
Arena. We had Jeff Simmons, the president of Elanco, talk about his personal
experiences with world hunger.”
Before the Hunger Knows No Bounds event, 10 teams of
students were given $100 each to gather nutritional meals for local families.
They shopped at Walmart and came back to campus to have
their meals judged based on nutritional value.
Not only does Purdue Ag Week provide educational
opportunities for everyone on campus, it also is a chance for students to gain
event planning and leadership skills. Last semester, students were nominated to
be on the Ag Week Task Force, and since then they have been working hard to make
the event a reality.
“We developed a media plan at the beginning of last
semester, and we’ve been working on implementing that,” Gee said.