Summary 2023 — New Jersey

State Contact

Ms. Caroline Etsch
New Jersey Farm Bureau
168 W. State Street
Trenton, NJ 08608
P: 732.794.6785
E: njagliteracy@gmail.com
Website

Innovative Programming

"Let's Plant a Pizza" was highlighted at our state Teacher's convention in our booth. It included a mini pizza box, with instructions on how to grow a round pizza garden with pie shaped vegetables. Inside the box were seeds to start right away. There were 500 kits given out, along with Pizza AgMags, and a demonstration version of a felt pizza the students make. We also help a Professional Development in March for National Ag Week on Teaching in a School Garden and each attendee received a worm bin to start their school compost activity.

Major Program Impacts or Outcomes

The major impact that NJ AITC has had is the notoriety it is receiving in the world of teachers. The visibility at conventions helped with this as well as establishing a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. Also, creating an email database has been very important, as has been enrolling in Constant Contact for connecting with NJ's teachers. Notably, the inbox queries have increased nicely. We also were able to support one special teacher who was chosen as a White-Reinhardt scholarship winner; a first for New Jersey. We hear repeatedly that the PD programming we present is exciting and very worthwhile for teachers. This gives us direct contact to highlight our website, scholarship and grant opportunities. Lastly, we have a good collaboration with other Ag groups in the state by being co-awarded a Farm-To-School Grant, as well as Specialty Crop Block Grant funding for projects.

Program Leader Biosketch

Caroline Etsch has served as Program Leader for NJ AITC for 5 years. She has an A.A.S. degree in Veterinary Technology and worked in that field for 14 years before leaving to work on the family farm. She joined NJ Farm Bureau and agriculture education has proved to be a good fit. When the opportunity came about to be the State Contact, she was glad to have the chance to lead the NJ affiliate of NAITCO.