USDANEWS VOLUME 58 NO. 6 — JULY-AUGUST 1999
by Ron Hall, Office of Communications
“Calling All Volunteers! We’re Lighting A New Fire Under This Program--And We Want You To Be A Part Of It!”
That’s the thrust of a message which USDA recently sent out to its employees at headquarters and field offices around the country. The Department is reemphasizing its 'Adopt-A-School’ program and is encouraging employees to get--and/or stay-- involved.
 “So
you’re using the flower to represent the positive byproduct that comes
from pairing agriculture and education, right?” confirms FSIS’s
Francisco Apodaca (left), as he studies a poster designed by Washington,
DC 8th grade student Vinh Tran (right). It was the grand prize winner in
a contest, which the Department recently sponsored, to develop a poster that
best depicts USDA’s 'Adopt-A-School’ program theme of
“Agriculture and Education, Planting the Seeds of Opportunity.” USDA
has been reemphasizing this program, encouraging employees to get involved as
volunteers.--Photo by Ken Hammond |
Earlier this year USDA updated its Adopt-A-School Program Guide. The new version, dated May 1999 and titled “Agriculture and Education, Planting The Seeds Of Opportunity,” updates an earlier version that was issued six years ago. The updated version includes an introductory message from Secretary Dan Glickman, in which he noted that USDA “has long supported both the spirit and the reality of an Adopt-A-School Program.”
And just what is this program?
Blondena Turner, executive assistant to the Office of Inspector General’s assistant inspector general for policy development and resources management, explained that 'Adopt-A-School’ refers to the effort to encourage USDA employees to volunteer their time and assistance, during the school day, to students in elementary, middle, and/or high schools located in the general geographic area of USDA offices. “Part of it is an attempt to help teach students the fundamental skills necessary to live and work successfully in the world of today,” she advised.
Iris Adams, director of OIG’s Equal Employment Opportunity Division, said that, while the volunteer activities can be many and varied, the Adopt-A-School programs share certain characteristics. “For instance,” she noted, “there is usually some form of an 'adoptive agreement’ which can last from a single school year to as long as the school and the USDA employee wish it to be.”
In addition, the volunteer activity tends to support the goal of equipping students with basic competencies of reading, mathematics, and other vital academic subjects.
In the past, such efforts have usually centered around USDA employees volunteering--with their supervisor’s advance approval and generally for no more than a few hours during the work day when it is scheduled--to visit onsite at area schools and serve as tutors. The April 1992 issue of the USDA News carried a story about the fact that the Department had clarified its policy and would grant administrative leave to employees, both at headquarters and field offices, who were participating--with supervisory permission--in such an 'Adopt-A-School’ volunteer activity.
But the program has taken on new dimensions since then. It has expanded into four general categories, as follows:
Agricultural Research Service Special Emphasis Program Manager Lori Delgado noted that, at present, USDA agencies have over 30 adopted schools throughout the country.
For instance, at the Farm Service Agency’s Aerial Photography Field Office in Salt Lake City, employees worked with students at its adopted elementary school to develop a model of a computerized train layout of the site in Park City, Utah for the 2002 Winter Olympics. “As part of our help,” noted Dave Parry, FSA customer services specialist, “we provided aerial photos of satellite imagery of that geographic area, for the train display.”
Carlos Dominguez, a historian with the Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, said that several FS employees work with three public high schools in Puerto Rico. “I work with biology teacher Noemi Mendez and others,” he explained, “as we take students onsite to a local forest area that had been damaged by excessive agricultural practices and ultimately abandoned, so they can study how the ecosystem is healing itself naturally.”
According to Francisco Apodaca, chief of the Financial Reviews and Analysis Branch in the Food Safety and Inspection Service, FSIS was the first USDA agency to organize a science fair, with its employees serving as judges, when it initiated that activity with students from Lincoln Multicultural Middle School in Washington, DC in 1996.
Agricultural Marketing Service international economist Ricardo Krajewski said USDA can see benefits through participation in Adopt-A-School. “Volunteers can help improve the quality of their area schools--and their community.”
But there’s yet another potential benefit to the Department, as FSIS financial assistant Sonya Bankins pointed out. “By encouraging our employees to work with students, we’re helping to develop and shape the work force for the new millennium, we’re ensuring diversity in it--and we may help those students consider careers at USDA once they finish school.”
USDA formally kicked off the effort at reemphasizing its participation in Adopt-A-School with a ceremony at the Whitten Building at USDA HQ in Washington, DC on May 26. FSIS Hispanic Employment Program Manager Gerry Flores noted that earlier, USDA sponsored a contest in which students in all DC-area public schools, grades 7-12, were invited to design an Adopt-A-School poster.
Paula Hayes, OIG’s assistant inspector general for policy development and resources management, was a judge in the poster contest. She said “The creativity displayed by the 54 children who submitted posters demonstrates that, when you plant a seed of knowledge and challenge people’s creativity, they recognize their opportunity and act on it.”
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