Students Raise Ag Awareness With a Very Affordable Meal

Lincoln Land Community College ag student Cody Zeeck is helping feed students and employees with quite a feast.

"Today we're serving hamburgers, pork chops, cheesy potatoes and green beans, along with a drink and dessert," Zeeck said.

"I think it's wonderful," LLCC employee Celena Bardwell said. "I'm hungry, it's lunchtime, and I'm appreciative at this moment."

That gratitude is likely due to the low cost of this meal ticket--only 50 cents.

"Very reasonable," Bardwell said.

The actual cost of a meal like this is a bit higher.

"It's about $8," LLCC Ag Club President Lauren Cannedy said. "We're not making any money off of this. This is costing our ag club money."

There's a good reason the LLCC Ag Club is literally eating their lunch on this event.

"And what that 50 cents is, it shows how much the farmers actually get from this meal," Zeeck said.

"Because people think that farmers get a huge amount of money for what they do," Cannedy said. "But in reality, they get a very small share of the profit that people make off of food."

This lesson doesn't seem to be lost on this lunch crowd.

"That's pretty crazy that they only get 50 cents for every $7 that we have to pay," Jessica Krueger said.

"It's not good for farmers," Bardwell said. "I think they should get the whole amount, 'cause there's a whole lot of hard work that goes in to it."

Ag Program coordinator Bill Harmon is also offering the guests a chance at prizes with ag trivia.

"In ag education, we try to reach people at different levels," Harmon said. "So we obviously have our students in the classroom. This is something we can do to reach out to the campus as a whole, and hopefully shed a little information on what it's like to be agriculture, what farmers go through, and give them a little better idea of where there food comes from."

This is the first year for the event, but ag club members seem ready to do it again in 2013.

"This thing we're doing today is pretty awesome," Zeeck said. "It really shows the community, people that have no idea about agriculture, or farming, how hard the farmers actually work and how little in return they actually do get."
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In Springfield, Mike Brooks, ABC NewsChannel 20.
Students Raise Ag Awareness With a Very Affordable Meal