N.C. Farm Bureau grants award to flower into service project for senior citizens

South Lenoir High School ag teacher Joseph Noble, left, accepts his N.C. Farm Bureau Going Local Grant award from Alton Roberson, president of the Lenoir County Farm Bureau. Submitted photo

Joseph Noble, sustainable agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at South Lenoir High School, will use a grant award from the N.C. Farm Bureau to create a hands-on learning opportunity for his students in the field of biotechnology.

The Going Local grant for $345 is designed to give 76 students in Agriscience Applications classes at South Lenoir experience in plant propagation in a greenhouse setting. They will use the techniques they learn to create cloned plants in hanging baskets.

After the plants reach maturity, Noble plans to for his classes to donate the hanging baskets to senior living facilities in Lenoir County.

Agriscience Application instruction, a facet of the Career and Technical Education program, allows students to explore career opportunities in the field of agriculture and develop basic skills related to those career fields.

“Through learning and applying various agricultural based skills throughout their curriculum, students ‘learn by doing’ and connect skills with real-world applications,” Noble wrote in his grant application. “It is always my hope that through service learning, I am not only preparing students to be successful future agriculturists but I am also preparing them to be great citizens as well.”

The grant will be used to purchase plant stock, rooting hormone, potting soil, hanging baskets and other equipment.

The grant check was recently presented to Noble by Alton Roberson, president of the Lenoir County Farm Bureau.