Maple school district receives AgStar grant for outdoor garden

The AgStar Fund for Rural America, the corporate giving program of AgStar Financial Services, awarded $700 to Maple School District for an outdoor patio garden system of planters and raised beds. The money will be used to purchase materials to create the garden including containers, a pyramid planter, potting soil and plants.

AgStar presented the Maple School District with their check on Nov. 27 at the high school.

The mission of this program is to support rural areas in AgStar’s service area by funding equipment for high school agriculture classrooms. Every rural high school agriculture program in AgStar’s 69-county service area is eligible to apply for a grant up to $2,500 if it has not received a grant in the last two years.

“Offering this grant program to ag classrooms is important to AgStar because we believe that education is the first step to helping students realize the vitality of agriculture in the world,” said John Monson, chairman of the Fund for Rural America. “Schools are especially strapped for funding in this area and we at AgStar want to help in every way possible to make sure the next generation is being educated about a topic so close to our hearts.”

Since its inception in 2001, the AgStar Fund has donated more than $4 million to organizations working to improve the future of rural America. Support must align with the fund’s mission of enhancing life in agriculture and rural America.

Tags: douglas county, news, agriculture, schools, money, education