![\"MDA](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/03\/IMG_1648.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>MDA Dep. Secretary Mary Ellen Setting reads to Sunderland Elementary School students on National Ag Day.<\/p><\/div>\n
SUNDERLAND, MD \u2013 Agriculture Deputy Secretary Mary Ellen Setting today read to kindergarten and first grade students at Sunderland Elementary School in Southern Maryland as part of \u201cRead Across Maryland\u201d Month and Ag Literacy Week<\/a>\/National Agriculture Week<\/a> (March 23-29).<\/span><\/p>\n Deputy Secretary Setting selected What\u2019s in the Garden?<\/strong><\/em> by Marianne Berkes<\/a> to the students. The book explains that good food comes from a farm or garden, not a box on a grocery store shelf. The story features a variety of rhyming riddles about healthy, tasty fruits and vegetables along with hidden pollinators and pests in a garden.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy to be here today with the students from Sunderland Elementary School and to share my passion for agriculture and the environment with them. Agriculture provides the food and nutrition to help students to succeed in school,\u201d said Deputy Secretary Setting. \u201cWorking together with educators, our public libraries, and families across Maryland, we can prepare the future leaders of Maryland to live and learn with excitement. I encourage every family to take up Governor O\u2019Malley\u2019s challenge and read with their children for at least 30 minutes every day in March and to develop the habit of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSunderland Elementary greatly appreciates having Deputy Secretary Setting visit our school and share her love of reading with our students,\u201d said Sunderland Elementary School Principal Karen Vogel. \u201cAs a guest reader, Deputy Secretary Setting enthusiastically modeled the joy that comes from books and the importance of developing college and career readiness skills as young learners.\u201d<\/p>\n For the sixth year in a row, the O\u2019Malley-Brown Administration is partnering with Maryland State Education Association, the Maryland Library Association and the Maryland Association of School Librarians to encourage educators, parents and children to read 30 minutes a day for 30 days as part of a \u201cRead 30 for 30\u201d theme.<\/p>\n This year also marks the 4th annual Ag Literacy Campaign, launched by the Maryland Agriculture Education Foundation<\/a>, to visit elementary school classrooms across the state, read a selected book and talk to students about the importance of agriculture in their lives. The selected book for 2014 is the What\u2019s in the Garden?<\/strong><\/em><\/a> book Deputy Secretary Setting read to the first graders.<\/p>\n \u201cRead Across Maryland\u201d<\/a> was inspired by the National Education Association\u2019s \u201cRead Across America\u201d program, which encourages children across the country to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of children\u2019s author Dr. Seuss. Throughout March, Maryland\u2019s public school students have been treated to readings by community leaders, elected officials, published authors and educators to promote daily reading.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUNDERLAND, MD \u2013 Agriculture Deputy Secretary Mary Ellen Setting today read to kindergarten and first grade students at Sunderland Elementary School in Southern Maryland as part of \u201cRead Across Maryland\u201d Month and Ag Literacy Week\/National Agriculture Week (March 23-29). Deputy Secretary Setting selected What\u2019s in the Garden? by Marianne Berkes to the students. The Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[768,766,767,765],"class_list":["post-9054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-ag-day","tag-ag-education","tag-ag-literacy","tag-read"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9076,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9054\/revisions\/9076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}