GLENDALE : Resource Center for Agriculture Opens

City kids who think food only comes from supermarkets are in for a lesson.

Beginning Wednesday, elementary school teachers in the Glendale Unified School District will be able to use a new agricultural resource center to teach students about farming, officials said.

The Agriculture in the Classroom Resource Center opened last week with an orientation workshop for more than 20 teachers. It is located at the former Clark Junior High School site in La Crescenta.

The center is not a farm--it’s a classroom stocked with reading materials and lesson plans about agriculture. But organizers say it’s a good start toward teaching an often-ignored subject.

“We’re hoping it will serve as a model,” said Mark Linder, executive director for the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom.

Linder believes that schools should provide more lessons on the farming industry, especially for students who live in cities.

“So many people have never been on a farm before,” he said. “They have no idea where they get their food from. I call it the supermarket mentality.”

Six Kiwanis clubs in Glendale, Montrose and La Crescenta donated more than $2,500 to buy educational materials produced by farming groups and the agriculture foundation, a nonprofit organization established in 1986 by the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Resource boxes containing a video, newsletters and lesson plans on agriculture were issued last Thursday to teachers from each of the district’s 19 elementary campuses. The center will eventually serve middle school and high school teachers as well.

Teachers at the center will be able to view posters that list facts about the farming industry, such as how many gallons of milk a cow can produce daily (4.7 gallons). A range of books about subjects from Johnny Appleseed to farm animals will also be available.

A coordinator from the foundation will supervise the center, which will be open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 5 p.m.

Ann Gonzales, one of the elementary teachers who attended Thursday’s workshop, said she believes that the materials will enhance the district’s new science curriculum, approved earlier this summer.

“This is fantastic,” said Gonzales, who teaches fourth grade at Muir Elementary School. “Everyone’s interested in the new curriculum and how they can better implement it. So this is a great resource for us.”