Ag Awareness Day at the 2024 State Fair of Texas

For more than 70 years, the State Fair of Texas® has proudly hosted Ag Awareness Day, a gathering of FCCLA, FFA, and 4-H student leaders from across the state to celebrate Texans and our state’s rich agricultural history. In collaboration with our partners at Dairy MAX, the Ag Awareness Day celebration kicks off a few days prior, with different activities and events for the students to enjoy and opportunities to give back to the local community, concluding with a canned food drive and book reading to DISD elementary students on the final day, October 9. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2024  
7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. 
Food Drive at Gate 15 

Enter at Gate 3 (Parry & Washington – Media Gate). 
Each year, the students participate in a canned food drive benefiting the North Texas Food Bank, which serves as the Food Bank’s largest donation each year. In 2023, more than 6,500 students representing 166 chapters of 4-H, FFA, and FCCLA participated. More than 27,900 pounds of food was collected and donated to the NTFB.   

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. 
*Book Reading to Third Grade Students 

Paul L. Dunbar, Joseph J. Rhoads, and Charles Rice Learning Centers Select students visit the above-mentioned South Dallas Fair Park area elementary schools and read children’s books to third grade students. The book being read is “Right This Very Minute: A table-to-farm book about food and farming,” by Lisl H. Detlefsen. In addition, Corteva Agriscience™ is gifting the schools’ libraries with the American Farm Bureau Foundation’s 17th book of the year, “My Grandpa, My Tree, and Me,” by Roxanne Troupe.  

12:00 p.m. 
Ag Awareness Day Culmination Ceremony 

Enter at Gate 3 (Parry & Washington – Media Gate). 
Briscoe Carpenter Livestock Center Arena 
Ag Awareness Day concludes with an awards ceremony thanking the students for their participation and applauding them for their service to the surrounding community.