In May of this year, Gibson Southern’s Future Farmers of America chapter lost a large plot of land, about 80 acres, from Toyota. The land was located on the south side of the Princeton Toyota plant and was used by the FFA for at least four years. The land is being reutilized to build a parking lot as part of new Toyota renovations.
According to FFA secretary Alyssa Baehl, Gibson Southern’s FFA chapter sent out a group of around seven members each time they would go out there to help farmers with planting, maintenance and harvesting that occurred throughout the year. Harvesting was one of the most prominent times they would help.
“We used it for crops,” FFA president Aleah Rexing said. “So, we would do (plant) corn and then beans. We would plant it and harvest that, and we would make money off of that.”
This helped current FFA members gain hands-on experience that is not easily received in a classroom setting. The experience in the field helped students at FFA events and in the future careers that they may choose to pursue after high school.
According to Rexing, the land was worth about $60,000 – $80,000 in annual revenue for the organization. In addition to losing the land, they also cannot sell the harvest collected and make money off of that. With both of these losses combined, the FFA officers had to reevaluate this year’s budget.
“We’ve had to go through our budget and realize what we are going to cut and what we’re going to keep,” Baehl said. “And, how we’re going to get back some of the money.”
Some items that had to be cut included not having meals at chapter meetings and not supplying shirts for teachers. Fees for events such as the National FFA Convention will be going up for members as well.
“The fundraising money is just going to go back to our chapter to help support trips, hotel fees, registration fees, for competitions and trips that we have to go on.,” FFA vice-president Meredith Johnson said.
On top of limiting the amount of money spent, there will be a lot more fundraising done by FFA members.
“We’ve kind of raised the number that people have to sell for those things [fruit and candy sales],” Baehl said.
On top of raising the amount expected for FFA members to sell, the organization is also raising prices of the items they are selling.
“We kind of need to push our prices up a little, just because of the economy,” Johnson said.
Current fundraisers sponsored by the FFA throughout the year include lollipops, a fruit sale during November and a plant sale in April.
Despite losing the land and cuts in the budget, the FFA chapter is still attending the National FFA Convention & Expo on October 23-26 to learn more about agriculture, be in the running for awards and learn skills to bring back to Gibson County.
