NATIONAL FFA WEEK – Week of Washington’s Birthday

(Last Updated On: February 11, 2019)

NATIONAL FFA WEEK 

Celebrate the upcoming crop of farmers during National FFA Week the week of George Washington’s birthday. The event commemorates Washington’s dedication and involvement in agriculture.

The Future Farmers of America (FFA) began as a statewide group for vocational agriculture students was started in Virginia in 1917. By 1927, H.O. Sargent, a federal agent for agricultural education for African-Americans and G.W. Owens, a teacher-trainer at Virginia State College, wrote the first constitution and bylaws for the “New Farmers of Virginia.” Their constitution and bylaws helped form the constitution and bylaws of the FFA.

The New Farmers was an organization for African-American agriculture students. The group operated parallel to the Future Farmers of America until the civil rights era in 1965 prompted the two groups to merge. Then in 1928, the National FFA was born and held it’s first national convention during what would later be National FFA Week. The first gathering that year in Kansas City included members from 18 states (Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin).

Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week by sharing what FFA is and the impact it has on members every day.

Famous FFA members:
Jimmy Carter, Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce.
During the week, you’ll find FFA members doing several things to celebrate and promote FFA like this:
• Volunteering time at a food kitchen or a local food pantry.
• Working with their community to plant a garden where people can learn to grow their own food and have fresh produce to eat.
• Organizing canned food drives.
• Donating food to a local food pantry.
• Raising money for local food banks.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Attend an FFA event or program
Promote and follow FFA on social media. Turn your profile blue for the week.
Use the hashtags #FFAweek when you share. 

HISTORY

In 1948, the first National FFA Week was held in Kansas City, Missouri. That year, national membership jumped from 238,269 in 1947 to 260,300; so many members attended the 20th National FFA Convention that a folding-cot hotel was set up in the basement of the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.

Because FFA members were soldiers During World War II, the national FFA conventions were streamlined events where only delegates and award winners attend. In 1942, just 217 people participated in the event.