30 North Dakota FFA members receive grants totaling $30,000

BISMARCK, N.D. — The North Dakota FFA Foundation will award grants to thirty North Dakota FFA members from chapters across the state. These grants are given for members to establish or expand their supervised agricultural experience projects (SAEs).

Projects approved for grants included everything from community gardens, aquaculture production, crop production and more.

The funding for these grants dates back to 2006 when Fridjov Bakk gifted the North Dakota FFA farmland from a trust with the intention that it be used for the benefit of North Dakota’s FFA members. Since that time the profits from the land’s production have been used to fund beginning and expansion SAE Grants, college scholarships and tuition grants for clients in the North Dakota Farm Business Management program.

“We are grateful for the ability to provide grants like these that make our member’s projects possible,” says Tamra Maddock, executive director of the North Dakota FFA Foundation. “Without generous donations like the one given by Mr. Bakk it would not be possible to fund these grants that expose our youth to the value of agriculture and entrepreneurship. There are so many life skills that can come from managing these projects.”

Of the thirty grants given, half are designated as beginning grants and half are designated as expansion grants. These grants were formally awarded at the North Dakota FFA’s Winter Leadership Conference in Bismarck on Jan. 6.