Hayesville FFA Awarded $12,500 Grant for School Farm Store

(Photo by Clay County Schools)

Staff Report

HAYESVILLE, N.C. — The Hayesville FFA chapter received a $12,500 grant Monday night to help open a school farm store on the Clay County Schools campus.

Andy VonCanon, Western Region agricultural education coordinator, presented the check from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission to agriculture teacher and FFA adviser Silas Brown during the Clay County Board of Education meeting. FFA officers Breanna Patterson, secretary; Scarlette Guyette, vice president; and Elizabeth Kamruddin, historian, represented the chapter.

The grant is intended to help establish the store as a complement to the agriculture program’s production work and to give students hands-on experience in small-business marketing and operations.

The award is part of a statewide agricultural education improvement grant program supported by the commission in partnership with the N.C. Agricultural Foundation, N.C. Agricultural Education and N.C. FFA.

Public check presentations to school boards are scheduled across the state from August through October.

Clay County Schools operates a single Pre-K-12 campus in Hayesville. Brown leads the high school agriculture program and FFA chapter.