![Volunteers read to Taft elementary students.]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1679505114/wsk12nyus/do0yzczuhjvklr16buna/IMG_66851.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1679505114/wsk12nyus/do0yzczuhjvklr16buna/IMG_66851.jpg","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1679505114/wsk12nyus/do0yzczuhjvklr16buna/IMG_66851.jpg","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_4/v1679505114/wsk12nyus/do0yzczuhjvklr16buna/IMG_66851.jpg","width":1200},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_5/v1679505114/wsk12nyus/do0yzczuhjvklr16buna/IMG_66851.jpg","width":1600},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_6/v1679505114/wsk12nyus/do0yzczuhjvklr16buna/IMG_66851.jpg","width":2200}])
Volunteers from the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Orange County came to visit Taft Elementary school on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 as part of their initiative to promote agriculture and literacy.
Betsy Hawes, a master gardener volunteer with CCE and retired Taft teacher has been doing this for the last 17 years, each year reading a different book to students. This time she read “Tomatoes for Neela", a story about a young girl who learns to cook with her mother.
She asked students what agriculture meant and where they see it throughout the county. Pumpkin picking, apple picking, farming and grazing cows are all a part of agriculture, she explained. Students were provided with tomato and basil seeds so they could participate in gardening as well.