Farm Credit of the Virginias Celebrates Agriculture Literacy Week
Farm Credit of the Virginias (FCV) donated more than 400 books to elementary school classrooms and libraries across their tristate territory in celebration of Agriculture (Ag) Literacy Week. During Ag Literacy Week (March 23-27), team members joined more than 120 classrooms to read the story and lead activities to help more than 2,000 students and educators gain a greater awareness and understanding of agriculture.
Ag Literacy Week is a yearly observance in March organized by Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) in which a book is selected and volunteers from agricultural organizations and businesses across the state donate copies of the story to local classrooms, volunteer to read the story and lead activities with students. The 2026 Virginia AITC book of the year was Farm Boots by Lisl H. Detlefsen, featuring a diverse cast of families as they work together to care for crops and animals on their farms through spring, summer, fall and winter, wearing many types of boots to get the job done.
“Agriculture Literacy Week is AITC’s largest outreach event every year. Volunteer readers do an outstanding job of connecting the non-farming public, especially students, to their food source,” shared Virginia AITC’s education outreach coordinator, Miriam Thomas. She continued, “Children learn that farmers are community members who provide us with the food, fiber and fuel that we all use daily. This year, 3,200 copies of Farm Boots are being donated to classrooms and school libraries.
Now in its sixteenth year, Farm Credit is pleased to participate in yet another Ag Literacy Week and support the efforts of Virginia AITC. Over the last nine years, Farm Credit of the Virginias has donated nearly 3,000 books to classrooms in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
FCV’s director of industry relations and government affairs, Kyley Clevenger, shared, “Agriculture Literacy Week is a highlight for our team here at FCV, which serves as a week to celebrate agriculture and education across our footprint.” Clevenger continued, “While we celebrate agriculture each and every day, we appreciate partnerships such as this with those in our rural communities advocating for and bringing awareness to the importance of our farmers. Together, we are able to share the story of agriculture.”
About AITC
Virginia AITC is a statewide educational program providing resources, training and support to schools, educators and volunteers so that they can meaningfully connect children to agriculture. We do this through AITC-designed lessons and resources, educator training workshops, newsletters, school grants, teacher awards, and volunteer projects and initiatives such as Agriculture Literacy Week. Recognizing that instructional time is highly valuable, our lessons are designed to support core subjects and uphold the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL). If you’d like to learn more about Virginia AITC, please visit their website: https://virginia.agclassroom.org/
About Farm Credit of the Virginias
Farm Credit of the Virginias provides over $2.4 billion dollars in financing to more than 12,500 farmers, agribusinesses and rural homeowners throughout Virginia, West Virginia and western Maryland. Farm Credit is a cooperative capitalized largely through investments made by farmers, ranchers and the rural homeowners and businesses that borrow from them. In fact, as part of a nationwide network they are the largest single provider of agricultural credit in the United States and have been for over 100 years. Farm Credit helps maintain and improve the quality of life in rural America and on the farm through its constant commitment to competitive lending, expert financial services and for facilitating and sharing knowledge and resources through the Farm Credit Knowledge Center.