“This has really been an amazing opportunity for our program,” said agriculture teacher Ashley Gilbert. “It’s allowed us to make new connections with people in our community that we have not been able to make before.”

The grant has allowed the school to purchase poultry processing equipment so students enrolled in the agriculture program on the high school’s farm can process the poultry.

So far, students have raised two batches of 25 chickens at the school farm and have processed them at Restoration Farm, owned and operated by local poultry farmer Dawn Jordan.

Gilbert said the school will order another batch of chickens this month to raise at the school farm, which should be ready for processing in May.

“The program Mr. Barber, Mr. Bailey and Mrs. Gilbert provide is one of the seminal programs for our students,” said Polk County School Superintendent Bill Miller. “If you look around, these are not just kids interested in agriculture because they were raised on a farm. These are some of our best students. They fight to get (in the program) and it’s because of the people who run the program and the kind of experience they provide.”