Sigma Alpha Hosts Annual Pizza Ranch
Southern Arkansas University's Sigma Alpha chapter recently hosted Pizza Ranch, an event geared to educate local students on how ingredients travel from the farm to their table.
We’ve all enjoyed a sizzling slice of pizza on a Friday night—and so have the students of Magnolia Elementary. But one organization of agricultural advocates is working to ensure those students know what it takes to bring each slice to their kitchen tables.
“Pizza Ranch is a really fun and interactive event for the kids,” says Julia DeSalvo, philanthropy chair of Sigma Alpha - Beta Rho at Southern Arkansas University.
“Growing up in a rural part of the state, a lot of us knew where our food was coming from,” she says. “But when you meet kids that live in town, they might not know exactly where their food is coming from.”
Pizza Ranch, an annual philanthropic event, teaches local students about agricultural processes—how ingredients such as dairy, grain, meat, and vegetables are cultivated.
Local organizations such as Farm Credit of Western Arkansas partner with Sigma Alpha to bring Pizza Ranch to life. Arkansas Farm Bureau lends its life-size dairy cow model to the organization so students can understand and practice the dairy process, and the Columbia County Fairgrounds offer the facilities for the event.
This year’s Pizza Ranch marked its ninth anniversary. Caroline Lester, who now teaches agriculture at Clinton High School, started the event in 2015.
“I was philanthropy chair for Sigma Alpha and knew that I wanted to teach ag,” she said. “I was excited and passionate about it and was looking for something that we thought could have a really big scope and reach a lot of kids. I wanted to do something that would have a large footprint and be very impactful on the kids in the community."
The event is held in support of Sigma Alpha’s national philanthropy, Agriculture in the Community. The philanthropy encourages members to give back to their community through agricultural education, promotion, and support.
Julia DeSalvo expresses her excitement for the event and its effect on the students. “It’s a really cool opportunity to watch that light bulb moment with the kids to see, Oh, hey, this is where my pizza dough comes from,” she said. “This cow is where the cheese on my pizza comes from. And it's just a really fun opportunity to be able to educate kids on something that at Sigma Alpha, we're so passionate about.”
Farm Credit of Western Arkansas is proud to sponsor Pizza Ranch, striving to provide educational opportunities to the communities we serve.
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