Purdue Ag Students use Ag Week to Touch the Non-Aggies

2017 Purdue Ag Week

This is the week on the West Lafayette campus of Purdue University that students passionate about agriculture make a concerted effort to share that passion and their own insights with other students. The sixth annual Purdue Ag Week features many events all week long to help point out the importance of agriculture.

Kathleen Jacobs with the Purdue Ag Week Task Force has been excited about Ag Week since the time she enrolled.

“When I was looking at what I wanted to get involved in on campus, Purdue Ag Week stuck out to me simply because one of my personal passions is bridging that gap between producers and consumers and really dissipating the myths around agriculture and the misconceptions that surround it.”

Students can earn promo items like Ag Week t-shirts by passing a 5-question quiz on their phone. That has turned into a year-long promotion for agriculture.

“It is the neatest thing to see kids walking around campus year-round that are not in ag but wearing our Ag Week shirts,” she said. “I was sitting in a psychology lecture last semester and it was so neat to me to see how many people that are majoring in psychology and have not connection to agriculture had on that shirt. I think that right there can show some of the breath of the students that we’re reaching.”

Hammer Down Hunger Tuesday on Memorial Mall is another annual event in which all students can participate.

“Through this event we’re able to package 70,000 meals which are then sent to children in Haiti, and for a lot of groups I think they sign up thinking it will help them with their philanthropy, whether they be in Greek life or some other student organization, and then while they’re there they start to see this is agriculture. For me and other agriculturalists it seems like a pretty obvious connection, but it is really eye opening to see the students who wouldn’t necessarily think of that as agriculture being able to not only see it in that light but to apply it as well.”

Purdue Dairy Club is kicking off the week with free grilled cheese sandwiches and milk for Milk Monday from 9:30 a.m. to noon on April 3, outside Class of 1950. In all there are more than 20 events, each presented by College of Agriculture student organizations. Other key events are:

Hammer Down Hunger from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., April 4, on Memorial Mall.

Burger Bash: The free lunch buffet line provides a meal while teaching students agricultural information about the parts of a hamburger. The lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., April 6, on Memorial Mall.

For more information about Ag Week, connect with the Purdue Ag Week Task Force on Facebook https://on.fb.me/1k0RLAF and Twitter https://twitter.com/PurdueAgWeek.