Extension brings interactive Arkansas Farm to You exhibit to North Little Rock students
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Oct. 29, 2025
Fast Facts:
- Arkansas Farm to You is traveling interactive exhibit for kindergarten through sixth grade students
- Exhibit follows food from the farm to the market and through the body
- Extension staff, teacher volunteers held exhibit at North Little Rock 6 Academy of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
(730 words)
(Newsrooms: With art)
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Students at North Little Rock 6 Academy of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences recently experienced the journey of Arkansas agriculture — from the farm to market shelves and through the body — thanks to Farm to You, an interactive exhibit from the Cooperative Extension Service.
Arkansas Farm to You is a program of the Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach branch of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The objective of the exhibit is to help students explore the relationships between Arkansas agriculture, food and health. The experience highlights the importance of making healthy choices in food, physical activity and personal hygiene.
On Oct. 24, extension staff and teacher volunteers conducted the exhibit for Pre-K through fifth grade students at NLR 6, the only themed elementary school in the North Little Rock School District.
Reginald Wilson, STEM coach at NLR 6, said this was the first time the exhibit was held at the school, which has about 270 students.
“I think it’s impressive,” Wilson said. “This is Farm to School Week, and we’ve been celebrating Arkansas Farm to School Month. It’s part of our theme — our school focuses on agriculture and veterinary science, so this is a great fit.”
Angie Stewart, Farm to You coordinator for the Division of Agriculture, has been leading the program for 11 years.
“Through the exhibit, these kids are learning about where their food comes from, how it gets to them from the farm,” Stewart said. “They learn how dairy and rice are processed, then they’ll build a plate using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate guide. Then they go through the mouth and learn about the importance of not smoking and brushing their teeth.
“From there, they go through the stomach, the intestines, the muscles and the bones, and they finish up with the skin, where they learn about handwashing,” Stewart said. “There’s a lot of information about hygiene and exercise.”
Divided into small groups, the students spent about five minutes at each station. Stewart said this quick pace helps keep the students interested in the material.
“If you keep them in one place for too long, they lose their attention span,” Stewart said. “So, while five or six minutes may be a bit of a challenge for our presenters, it’s a perfect pace for the kids.”
Interactive learning
Andrea Cochran, fourth grade math and science teacher at NLR 6, said the Farm to You exhibit delivers important information in engaging ways.
“I think it’s interesting for them to actually see, ‘This is where your food comes from, these are the effects on your body,’ and go through the whole motion,” Cochran said. “The kids are interested in what they’re doing. You don’t have any kids staring off into space. They seem very engaged, so we’ll probably hear from them about it during the next week or so. I absolutely love it.”
Cochran said the exhibit also ties in to what students are learning in the classroom.
“We show pictures, and we do visuals, but here they get to walk through and say, ‘Okay this is fat, this is muscle,’” Cochran said. “And they get to see different types of foods, some of which they haven’t been exposed to.”
At the last station, students learned about germs and the importance of washing their hands. The station’s presenter sprayed students’ hands with a substance to highlight the presence of germs, which Cochran said was particularly helpful.
“It’s harder for them to visualize the concept of it, because when they look at their hands, they don’t see anything,” Cochran said. “I love that station because they actually got to see, ‘Look, you have germs on your hands.’ It’s fascinating.”
Stewart said that over the last 11 years, she has delivered the Farm to You exhibit to an average of 6,000 to 7,000 students per year — aside from a 14-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been amazing to watch the ways Farm to You helps things really ‘click’ for students,” Stewart said. “We’ve had all sorts of volunteers help us out with this — teachers, parents, high school and college students, members of Extension Homemakers Council. They really help the kids get excited about what they’re learning.”
Visit the Farm to You page on the Cooperative Extension Service’s website to learn more, or contact your local county extension agent for more information about bringing the exhibit to your school.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
@RKHall_
501-671-2061