LITTLETON, Maine — Nancy Wright of Littleton still recalls the day that as part of a lesson for her students about where food comes from in her classroom at the former Wellington School in Monticello, she cooked chicken tenders for her students using fresh chicken from the meat department.
When the lesson was over, one of the parents who had observed the process came up to her and asked where in the supermarket she could buy chicken.
“I was completely shocked,” Wright, who has helped her husband run his fifth generation potato farm since their marriage 44 years ago, said on Thursday. “She had never just purchased fresh chicken before. When she needed a food like chicken tenders or chicken nuggets she’d gone to the freezer section and purchased it out of a bag. That, to me, is why it is so important to teach children about where their food comes from and show them how hard people work to grow their food.”
It is something that Wright has put a great deal of time and effort into not only throughout her farming career, but during her 37-year teaching career. For that, she was recently honored as the Maine Agri-Woman of the Year by Maine Agri-Women, an affiliate of American Agri-Women, which is the nation’s largest coalition of farm, ranch and agribusiness women with over 50 state, commodity and agribusiness affiliate organizations throughout the country.
“I was surprised and honored by the award,” said Wright, who retired from teaching five years ago but still fills in as a substitute. “It was unexpected, but it felt great to be recognized for my work.”
Some of that includes helping a committee draft and edit Potatoes for ME, a presentation which includes photographs and information about the equipment of the potato harvest from the past and present, along with the changing seasons.
“I wanted to promote the potato industry in a positive way,” explained Wright. “It demonstrates the amazing work ethic that farmers must have in order to grow their crop.”
It was recently read to elementary school children in more than 90 Aroostook County classrooms.
She also engaged students in learning about the harvest break during math and science camps with hands on educational lessons and tasks, an initiative that secured her the Innovative Science Teacher of the Year award for her outstanding efforts.
“One of the first questions I would ask the students during the camp was ‘Why do we take harvest break?” she asked. “And the majority of the students got the answer wrong, saying things like, ‘So that families could go on vacation or so that teachers could have a break.’ Because they were part of the generation that wasn’t used to working harvest break, they thought that way. That is sad. There is a true value in students working during the break, earning their own money, learning a work ethic and how to interact with an employer and coworkers.”
Judy Kenney, the immediate past president of Maine Agri-Women, said in a written statement about the award that Wright has been “the driving force behind bringing agriculture to her classroom and classrooms throughout Aroostook County.”
“There are not many agriculture-related experiences that she has not exposed to her classroom and community,” she added.
One of Wright’s greatest achievements, she said, was writing a grant to get a greenhouse and surrounding garden built at the Wellington School, which was maintained not only by the students and staff but with the help of volunteers. The food grown in the garden was eaten by students in the cafeteria.
“There were so many lessons taught there,” she said. “The children learned how a seed is planted and how if they tend it and take care of it, it can grow into food They also learned that one little thing can impact its future, such as lack of rain, a hail storm, insect activity and more. So many parents told me their children got interested in gardening because of those lessons.”
