The Pike County Farm-City Committee of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce was named the 2016 Best Farm-City Committee in Division II during the Alabama Farm-City Awards Luncheon in Birmingham.

Kathy Sauer, Chamber president, said Division II is made up of Farm City committee from counties with populations of less than 35,600.

“This is the third year the Pike County Farm-City Committee has received the Best Farm-City Committee in our division,” Sauer said. “It represents the dedication and hard work of the committee and the support that we receive from the community. This is a tremendous honor for the committee and all of Pike County.”

The committee also received the Division II Best Farm-City Tour and the National Ag Day awards.

Randy Hale, committee chair, said the Pike County Farm-City Committee is made up of about 30 members who represent a cross-section of the agricultural and business communities.

“The members dedicate themselves to the areas of their expertise and interests so everybody is not doing everything and that works very well for us,” Hale said. “We also have a lot of volunteers and we depend on them too. Altogether in 2016, we had about 275 committee members and volunteers who contributed 768 hours to activities that reached more than 1,000 people.”

Hale said the committee sponsors and hosts the annual Farm Day for all third graders in the county and Classroom in the Forest for all fifth graders.

“We also sponsor a farm or city tour each year,” he said. “In 2016, we toured Southern Classic Foods in Brundidge. Chuck Caraway, who owns the food manufacturing plant, gave us an informative and very extensive tour of the facility. The committee won first place for that tour.”

The committee again won the blue ribbon for its Farm-City display at the Pike County Fair.

One of the committee’s high profile events is the Farm-City Swap, which involves the swapping of jobs between members of the agricultural and business communities.

“This year, the swap was between Chanda Rigby, the women’s basketball coach at Troy University, and Mary Dubose, a farm wife,” Hale said. “The committee participated in ‘Take a Kid Fishing Day” and a fishing day at Pike County Lake for the children at Troy Elementary School.  We also participated in the Peanut Butter Festival Parade and the golf tournament in Brundidge.”

Members of the committee spoke at different clubs and organization about Farm-City and its activities and events.

The annual Farm-City Banquet attracted more than 300 people and honored members of the agricultural community who made outstanding contributions during the 2016 year.  The award the committee received for its National Ag Day event was in response to its efforts to highlight the different commodity groups that make up the agricultural community in Pike County.