Looking to help promote the understanding of food production with students, Blair's Family of Companies recently wrapped up their Food Farm.

In May, students visited Blair's locations in Lanigan and Watrous, where they were able to learn how food is planted, where it begins, and how it grows.

Kayla Hordos, a marketing specialist with the company, says that they were aiming to grow the knowledge of young people.

"We wanted to do a better job as a company on executing agvocacy efforts. Two of those action items that we came away with was that we wanted to participate in Agriculture in the Classroom in March," she said. "The second part was hosting Food Farms, and it was an employee who brought that idea to us."

Hordos added that keeping knowledge within students surrounding their food is important.

"We started to notice some disconnect in watching youth and younger people not understand not only where their food comes from, but all the efforts that go into where it is produced and how it is grown," she said. "It's just fact of life to know that and understand that as you're making decisions to that where you are going, whether anybody is going to be making their own food."

On September 12 and 13, students returned to the two locations where they were able to see how their plants grew over the summer.

Students were also able to see wheat plots, which Hordos noted helped them understand where bread originates, and that it just doesn't simply show up on the table.

Hordos says that seeing the energy and excitement from the students in their return was enjoyable.

"One of the highlights was digging potatoes. Some of the kids, when they pulled the plants, looked at the bottom and said 'well mine doesn't have any potatoes', so we had to teach them to dig in the ground to find the potatoes," she explained. "That part in itself was pretty neat watching kids discover that it's not just top of the dirt, and they had to dig in to discover the food."

In addition to harvesting food, students also took part in six other learning stations, including farm safety, milk, bees, soil, mining, and fertilizer.