Howell Students Honored In State Poster Contest

HOWELL, NJ — Two Howell Township students, have been named winners — one of them the statewide grade-level winner — in the New Jersey Agricultural Society's annual Farm-City Week Poster Contest.

This year's theme for the poster contest was “Jobs That Help Feed The World.” The students were asked to highlight some of the many careers in agriculture and to describe one that interested them the most.

Kezia George, a fourth-grader, and Cristian Dulnuan, a third-grader, both of whom attend Memorial Elementary School, were honored, with George receiving recognition as the statewide grand prize winner for fourth grade, according to a news release from Memorial Elementary School.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade from 20 New Jersey schools participated in the poster contest. The New Jersey Agricultural Society chose one contest winner from each school at each grade level. Then from those winners, a statewide grand prize winner was chosen for each grade level.

The annual poster contest is part of the New Jersey Agricultural Society's Learning Through Gardening program, which provides materials to schools to build vegetable gardens that are used as outdoor classrooms, the release said. The program also provides training and curriculum to teachers to assist them in including garden activities in their everyday lessons in all subjects. School gardens show students where their food comes from and how plants grow.

The garden programs also encourage students to eat healthy food, as the students are able to eat the vegetables they grow at school, the release said. Learning Through Gardening currently supports gardening in 35 schools throughout New Jersey in its three-year program. Since its inception in 2002, Learning Through Gardening has started gardens in 80 New Jersey schools, reaching 32,000 students, the release said.

The Learning Through Gardening program is one of three New Jersey Agricultural Society programs. The others are Farmers Against Hunger and the Agricultural Leadership Development Program.

Farmers Against Hunger is dedicated to collecting fresh fruits and vegetables from farms, wholesalers, and food distributors across the state and distributing that food to people in need. The Agricultural Leadership Development program educates individuals involved in farming and agribusiness "to help them become informed, articulate leaders," the release said.

Photo provided by Memorial Elementary School, Howell Township