Celebrating National 4-H Week

Published: Oct 02, 2023

The first week of October marks 4-H Week each year and is the ideal opportunity to share the important work this organization does for young people across North America.

Nutrien has partnered with 4-H since before we were Nutrien! We share their deep roots in rural and agricultural communities and are inspired by their ability to activate the innovation and energy of youth engaged in those communities. We see our partnership with 4-H as a way to encourage future community leaders, to enhance local school programs and to invest in our employees and our customers’ kids. And we support 4-H branches from Lanigan, SK to Lima, OH to Geismar, LA to Conda/Idaho.

We collaborate with community partners who share our values, approach, and most importantly will contribute to the impact we seek to make. Our partnership with 4-H meets at the crossroads of their “Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security” leadership development pillar and our “Sustainable Agriculture” focus area. We share a desire to drive youth leadership development in support of feeding a growing global population sustainably.

Here are just a few ways Nutrien has supported 4-H in making an impact in the lives of young people across North America this year.

4-H Members join us on Journey 2050

Earlier this year we partnered with 4H in Alberta, Canada to host a contest to connect their members to the Journey 2050 program. Journey 2050 is a free agriculture education program that challenges participants to answer the question, “How will we sustainably feed nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050?” And, to us, felt like the perfect problem to put industrious 4-H members to work on.

Our program partner, Agriculture for Life, hosted virtual Journey 2050 presentations to 4-H members across the province. After participating, members told us what they learned to be entered into the contest. On September 9, Nutrien hosted the five winners and their families at our reclamation forest at our site in Fort Saskatchewan.

“The Journey 2050 contest was an incredible learning opportunity, and the Fort Saskatchewan tour was such an amazing experience,” says contest winner Abby Waldner, a 4-H member. “In the contest, I learned so much about how we can make our agriculture more sustainable in order to protect our future. On the Fort Saskatchewan tour, Nutrien employees spoke about their STEM careers, then Cory gave us a great tour of the fertilizer plant and taught us all about the production process. Then, we rounded the day off with touring Connie's beautiful forest and learning all about her hard work in reclaiming the gypsum stacks.  I'm so fortunate to have been selected for this incredible opportunity. I learned so much and had fun while doing it!”

Connie Nichol, Specialist, Environment for Nutrien in Fort Saskatchewan says: “Our team in Fort Saskatchewan was so excited to host the day’s events and to welcome 4-H members and their families.  It’s always a pleasure to share what we do and show people our plant site.  We’re especially proud of our reclamation projects and hope that we’ve taught and inspired our guests a little bit about the fertilizer industry and how we can make a difference.”

Congratulations to the contest winners! Thank you for exploring sustainability through our Journey 2050 program and Nutrien’s own efforts in Fort Saskatchewan!

Caribou County 4-H maximizes donation dollars

We have been incredibly impressed by the Caribou County 4-H and their ability to make our donation to their programming really go the distance for their members.

Over 100 youth have been able to participate in Nutrien sponsored educational events this year, which included:

• Fishing Camp – Fishing at Wrights Trout Farm, with games and activities with Idaho Fish and Game
• Water Camp – Games and Activities with Farm Bureau’s “Moving Agriculture to the Classroom” Trailer
• Tree Identification Hike
• Plant Identification Hike
• Cooking Classes
• “Farm to Table Tour” to Stoddard Farms in Grace, Idaho

"Through Nutrien's grant we were able to do several successful educational day camps this summer," says Rachel Hamilton, Administrative Assistant to the Caribou County 4-H Director. "We were excited to use some of the funds towards our 4-H camp located in Alpine, Wyoming, but due to the winter we had, we were unable to attend camp this year. We were asked by North Gem School District to teach some ag education classes in their classrooms. Because of Nutrien we are able to purchase a cart and grow lights to be able to take into the classroom! We are grateful for Nutrien's commitment to agriculture education."