With Campus Closed, Purdue Ag Week Goes Virtual

Purdue-Ag-Week-goes-Virtual

Life goes on in the middle of this coronavirus pandemic, but for many it has become a virtual, or online life. Such is the case for the ninth annual Purdue Ag Week, scheduled for next week, April 13-17 on the West Lafayette Campus. The twenty students who organize the event for engaging with the university at large about the importance of agriculture felt it was important to continue the tradition virtually.

“We made the decision that we felt that Purdue Ag Week is such a tradition and a huge platform that we have to really connect with our campus, students or faculty, and we have the skills virtually,” said organizing member Emily Dougherty. “We have some social media platforms that are built up and we have the support of the College of Agriculture to try our hardest to produce our events virtually in the best ways that we can and try to reach as many people as possible that way. We thought it would be an uplifting time for clubs and organizations to still be able to produce online platforms and online posts about their events.”

Emily says one goal of the week this year in particular is to showcase the resiliency of the students in the college and more broadly, in Indiana agriculture.

“Agriculture has to go on every day not matter what’s happening in the world, so by putting out our programming we hope to showcase that,” she said. “We still hope to showcase those main messages that we would highlight even if Ag Week was still happening in person, whether that’s farm to fork, showcasing food insecurity, and also we’re doing a new event this year called Wellness Wednesday that’s showcasing farm safety and what different organizations do to help keep farmers safe.”

She told HAT Purdue Ag Week is moving outside their own channels to get the entire university involved.

“We’ve reached out to Life at Purdue, which is the Purdue social media pages for the whole university, as well as the main clubs that reach both sides of State Street,” she said. “So we’re utilizing them as well to help get those messages out there, share our posts, and try our best to engage people outside the College of Agriculture community.”

You can connect with Purdue Ag Week on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by following @PurdueAgWeek and #PurdueAgWeek20.

Purdue Ag Week Task Force and College of Agriculture clubs have these events scheduled:

Milk Monday: A video promoting the value of the dairy industry to the world, hosted by Purdue Ag Week task force member Kylei Klein.

Hammer Down Hunger: Replicating the service meal-packing event, this will encourage viewers to donate to Lifeline Giving in support of Purdue Ag Week’s efforts to combat food insecurity.

Wellness Wednesday: New this year to Purdue Ag Week, Wellness Wednesday will focus on advocating farm safety and promote wellness and support within the food and agricultural community.

Purdue’s Ag Week task force will share videos from AgrAbility and Co-Alliance.

Burger Bash: Since burgers won’t be served on Memorial Mall, Purdue Ag Week task force will highlight how consumer products relate to agricultural commodities.

College of Agriculture Leadership Day: The Purdue Agricultural Council, Purdue College of Agriculture Ambassadors and Purdue Ag Week task force will demonstrate how these three large leadership organizations work together to advance and support the College of Agriculture.

Each day, a daily quiz will be available as the Purdue Ag Week task force seeks to engage with its audiences. At the end of each daily quiz, viewers will have the opportunity to enter a giveaway for a limited-edition Purdue Ag Week T-shirt. Viewers are encouraged to check Purdue Ag Week’s social media channels every morning for an opportunity to win.

Source: Purdue News Service