RONAN — It can be hard to keep acronyms straight with the organizational alphabet soup permeating our society, but here in the Mission Valley, FFA is one worth knowing. In fact, there’s no excuse not to commit it to memory, since it’s not even an acronym anymore! According to Reese McAlpin, the agricultural education teacher at Ronan High School, the organization formerly known as Future Farmers of America officially abbreviated its title to ‘FFA’ in 1988, citing the changing landscape of agribusiness as the reason for the name change.

On Sat. Oct. 13, a handful of students from Ronan’s FFA program were assisted by other volunteers in an effort to revitalize the community garden situated behind the High School.

“It was put in years ago, and (due to construction) it was fenced off all summer, and so no one was able to get in and maintain it,” McAlpin said of the overrun garden, as the team cleared away truckloads of weeds and unwelcome vegetation.

But the projects undertaken by McAlpin and his students extend far beyond the community garden.

“In a couple weeks, we’ll actually be planting vegetables in our greenhouse, and our goal is to produce food that we can sell to the (school) cafeteria,” says McAlpin.

“It’s important for these kids to learn that food doesn’t come from a grocery store – it’s produced by a farmer… That’s something that a lot of our society has lost a connection to,” he added.

The garden and greenhouse projects are but two examples of the work tackled by the federally chartered program touting agricultural education in the classroom and in the community. The nationwide organization was established in 1928, and the Mission Valley FFA chapter traces its roots back to 1939.

Ronan High School students have the option of starting FFA as freshmen, and McAlpin states that “about 15” students at Ronan High School are currently enrolled in the program.

McAlpin, in his second year at Ronan, says that many kids are drawn for the fun, but get a whole lot more out of their experience.

“A lot of (its allure) is just fun, but they gain a lot of career training and experience that other programs don’t give them. They get interpersonal skills, interviewing skills, agricultural knowledge, on-the-job work experience and actual hands-on training for agricultural careers.”

From Oct. 24-27, McAlpin and some of his students took their show on the road, when they attended the national FFA convention in Indianapolis. Boasting over 500,000 members nationally, FFA is the largest youth organization in the world, and this year, over 25,000 members were expected to attend the Indianapolis conference. The conference hosts leadership workshops and various keynote speakers, and “career success tours” of select farms in the area.

Attendees also contributed to the national FFA Rally to Fight Hunger Campaign, by taking the field at the Colts’ home stadium to prepare 1,000,000 meals. McAlpin says that half of those meals will go to food banks in the Indianapolis area, while the other half will be sent to Haiti.

“So, it’s not just leadership and fun stuff  and development for the kids. It’s volunteerism and helping others,” McAlpin said of the trip