Our Impact
Making A Difference in Our County
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is working hard for its constituents. The following are examples of Extension’s impact in the county over the past year.
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CALHOUN COUNTY 4-H PROGRAM
In 2024, the Calhoun County 4-H Club provided various opportunities to the youth of this community that help them learn valuable life skills. Healthy lifestyles was taught in local schools in grades 4-8 reaching 463 students.? These classes included lessons on basic manners, the importance of hand washing, plants, soil, and agriculture.? Topics such as parts of the plant, types of soil,? the importance of physical? activity, making a healthy smoothie (with the smoothie bike), and? agriculture are also highlighted in Farm, Fun, & Fitness (A collaboration of Ag and 4-H? is? in year 5, and was taught to 45 second graders).? ?Classes were also taught to 65 students in grades 9-12 on careers and team building activities.? For 2024, we had over 45? ?4-H'ers participate in? opportunities such as District Project Achievement competition (Cloverleaf and Junior-Senior), portfolio workshops, summer camp, livestock projects, Georgia Swine Boosters Skillathon, summer events (H2O Day Camp, Community Service Projects, Cooking Classes, Bowling) and other 4-H events to the youth in grades 4-12. The Calhoun County 4-H Club also works? each to raise funds to assist with these activity/event fees. This year, we sold 500 bags of onions to assist with 4-H fees.? All of these opportunities offered by 4-H helps to improve a young person’s public-speaking skills, strengthen their decision-making skills, teach them about mutual respect, responsibility, good sportsmanship, good citizenship, as well as enhancing their math, science and writing skills.
CALHOUN COUNTY AGRICULTURE
Timely harvests, smarter genetics, and improved pest management insights are three drivers that helped keep local profits in the field during 2024. Weekly peanut maturity clinics on over 100 grower samples turned pod-blasting data into clear “dig now vs. dig later” recommendations, helping producers avoid the steep yield and grade penalties of premature or late harvests and keep roughly $50 per acre in the wagon. On-farm variety trials of new cultivars that can help deliver a 5-15% yield increase of roughly 220 pounds and $55 per acre. If 20% of Calhoun County’s 19,000 peanut acres were planted to improved varieties in 2025, growers stand to gain over $209,000 in new revenue. Finally, local farms representing 7,047 acres joined a statewide insect-management assessment that revealed key takeaways and insights that are guiding Extension’s peanut pest management programming and grant efforts. From pinpointing the optimal digging date to steering variety decisions and sharpening pest management recommendations, Calhoun County Extension’s ANR Agent turned research into real-world knowledge that kept dollars and sustainability on local farms. For more information and updates from the field, please consider following the .
Family and Consumer Sciences
成人影院 Extension provides nutrition education programs?and educational materials for adults and youth. By improving the overall health habits of Georgians, fewer hospitalizations and medications will be required, reducing health care costs for individuals, taxpayers, small businesses and corporations. The Calhoun County Extension office can provide publications and assist residents in locating applicable programs in nearby counties.
Healthier Together Calhoun Health Coalition
2016 – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Awarded Calhoun County with 2-year ?HOP (High ?
???????????? Obesity Program) Grant.
?2017-? Healthier Together Calhoun Health Coalition was formed with 3 project goals:???????
1.????? Increase Access to Healthy Foods?(Installed community gardens (10 locations), grab and go coolers (5), food banks (2), training to school lunchrooms and provided equipment, and offering Faithful Families Training opportunities).
2.????? Increase Access to Healthy Activities?(Installed walking trails (4), fitness equipment (4 locations), “walk your city” signs (in all 4 municipalities), provided additional playground equipment (Morgan, Arlington, & Leary), after-school programs, and repaired sidewalks to increase walkability-Edison and? Morgan).
With this grant we collaborated with the University of Georgia College of Environment and Design who presented innovated environmental and landscape architecture designs to each municipality in order to show them what is possible in their cities to increase physical activity at no cost to them.
3.????? Increase Communication about Health-Related Events and Activities?(Information is shared on the to highlight healthy recipes, exercises, and the latest information about the community health and community events.)?
2018 – 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended Calhoun County grant for an
?????????????????????? additional 5 years working towards sustainability within the community with each
??????????????????????? providing future upkeep of those things provided by the grant.
2024- ???HTC Health Coalition continues to meet quarterly to provide updates on new programs or
????????????? ?events that promote health and wellness and by showing the importance of physical fitness.? ?
WELL CONNECTED COMMUNITIES
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