Brian:  We have the Fall Harvest Experience
here at the North Florida Research and
Education Center Suwannee Valley
where we highlighted
crops grown here in the Suwannee Valley
region including corn, pumpkins, sorghum..
Our target audience is youth in the Suwannee
Valley region and our goal is teach youth
where their food comes from,
how it's grown and why it's so
economically important to this region.
Young people can come to this
working farm
and they can pick their own pumpkin, they
can walk through a cornfield, they get to sit
on a tractor and learn how a tractor
runs, and they get to learn about
how corn is grown and the many products
that it is used in.
This program has been a success. 
We've had over sixteen hundred young
people come through this is
is less than a month.
All the kids of said they've enjoyed it
and they loved and they can't wait
to go pick their own pumpkin; or they want
to go back through the maze and run
through it again; and they definitely want to
to come back next year and learn more about it.
We've had nothing but
positive feedback from our teachers. They
they said it's been a enjoyable learning
opportunity.  They've
gotten to learn outside of the classroom
and also give their kids that
hands-on learning experience.
One of the added benefits of 
this program is
that we expose a lot more kids to the
benefits of their county 4-H program.
We've even had a new 4-H club
start as a result.
This program has been a collaboration between
multiple agencies including many of the
local county Extension office in
North Florida, our local
Farm Bureau and
local farmers have all
helped out to make this program run
smoothly.
With kids so far removed from agriculture,
we feel as extension agents, it's our
responsibility to teach them about the
agriculture that's grown in the
region and to teach them about how food is grown
and that it's not just something from the grocery store.
Narrator:  In the Northeast District, agents
are meeting the diverse needs of their
communities through
a variety of programs.
The Urban Tree Care program in the Duval
County is a partnership between agent
Larry Figart and the Public Works
Department of Jacksonville.
In just two years, the program has
educated over one hundred county workers
and is now included as part of the
orientation for all new parks
maintenance employees.
The program uses a combination of
classroom lectures and hands-on learning
to train attendees on topics like proper
pruning techniques.
In Nassau County,
Meg McAalpine's Medicare Education
program is empowering
seniors and other medicare recipients
to make decisions about their benefits.
This free program started five years ago
as part of a grant to educate residents
about Medicare, Part D.
Through classes
and one-on-one instruction, the program
has educated more than five hundred people.
And in Suwannee and Duval counties, the
Pastured Poultry program is giving
guidance to small-scale producers.
In just three years, Elena Toro and
Brad Burbaugh created numerous
publications and presentations
a website
into virtual field day that offers
information previously unavailable
to poultry farmers.
The program has received three national
awards and it's been accessed by over one
hundred twenty five thousand
online leaders
