Community Involvement

As a mission-driven financial cooperative, we believe in serving and enriching the rural communities where we live and work.

Hands-on Learning Generates Ag Awareness and Education

Dec 11, 2019, 21:30 PM by Frontier Farm Credit Staff Reports
Find out how educational programs like GrainBridge and Operating Wildlife are preparing the next generation of Kansas producers.

FFA students from 32 schools within eastern Kansas are gaining budgeting, grain marketing and farm business planning skills thanks to GrainBridge, a program that provides web-based farm risk management curriculum tools at no cost to educators and students in agricultural classrooms as part of Frontier Farm Credit’s funding support.

Through the instruction of 20 interactive modules, students walk away with a better understanding of how to manage risk from pre-planning to point of sale using live market data. They also practice managing virtual farms and ranches by stimulating market events and scenarios that affect profitability.

"Teachers love the real-world applications of the program and its relevance to what is happening in production ag today."
– Jordyn Bader

“We often hear from teachers that they love the real-world applications of the program and its relevance to what is happening in production ag today,” says GrainBridge education and outreach coordinator Jordyn Bader.

According to Bader, the experiential learning tool is making an impact outside of the classroom, too.

“We have a number of students who are transitioning what they are learning in the classroom and applying it to their family’s operation or even their own production-based project as part of their supervised agricultural experience,” says Bader.

Making Connections Between Pollinators and Production Agriculture

Another educational outreach program organized by Operation WildLife, is working to expose elementary students to the important environmental role honeybees play as pollinators.

Students in participating schools will be able to see honeybees at work in a portable observation hive while learning about their social structure, the special challenges they face and how they benefit food and agriculture systems.

“As part of our mission to provide wildlife education, we decided to branch out and do outreach education in the classroom emphasizing the primary role honeybees play as pollinators,” says Diane Johnson, executive director of Operation WildLife.

“Education starts early, and if we can make children aware of honeybees up close and personal, the more they will understand their value.”

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Our Commitment

2022 Frontier Farm Credit community involvement map 

Each dot on this map represents a project, program or organization supported by our 2022 community involvement program.

Serving rural America means more than financing those who farm and ranch.

Our community involvement program focuses on ag education, young and beginning producers, hunger and nutrition, rural disaster relief and essential services. We support these initiatives through employee volunteering, financial contributions and grants.

Download the latest report:

Working Here Fund Grants

We provide grants for projects and organizations that make an impact in eastern Kansas.

Focus Areas

Plant in Book

Ag Education

Dinner plate

Hunger and Nutrition

Plant in palm of hand.

Young and Beginning Producers

Medical Tent

Rural Disaster Relief and Essential Services

Funding Options

$2,000

grants awarded quarterly

$10,000

grants awarded semiannually

In Our Communities

Employees participate in our community involvement program through hands-on volunteer efforts. Annually, each employee is allocated eight hours of paid time to volunteer for an organization they choose to support. We also match employees’ donations to nonprofit organizations up to $300 per employee each year.

In 2022, employees volunteered nearly 800 hours in their local communities through virtual and socially distanced efforts.

Scholarships

We offer annual scholarships to qualified students studying agriculture at land grant universities and community colleges in Kansas.

Land Grant University Scholarships

Scholarship Amount

$2,500

Scholarships Awarded

8 per university

Qualifying Universities

  • Kansas State University

Community College Scholarships

Scholarship Amount

$2,000

Scholarships Awarded

2 per college

Participating Colleges

  • Highland Community College
  • Allen County Community College

Community Involvement Contacts

For more information about our community involvement program, contact your local Frontier Farm Credit office or email community@frontierfarmcredit.com.