Agriculture scholarship offered
Agriculture in the Classroom Canada and Dairy Farmers of Canada are offering a scholarship opportunity for Canadian youth in grades 10-12.
The DFC Here for Tomorrow Scholarship helps connect students with many roles within the agriculture and food sector, while helping them recognize how their interests and skills can be used in the industry.
Prospective applicants need to submit one of the following: a written essay of 1,500 words, a video of three minutes, or a visual arts piece (ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, design, craft, photography, architecture), answering three key questions pertaining to their interests, agriculture and food careers, and global sustainability.
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The numbers are still coming in for the cost of the damage caused by a huge hail storm that hit various areas of Alberta Aug. 20.
For its pilot year, two students will be awarded $2,500.
Applications will be accepted from April 4 to June 1.
Food waste reduction funded
Ottawa plans to provide up to $1.545 million in funding for Outcast Foods Inc. to scale up its operations in food waste reduction.
The Halifax company turns surplus and unsaleable fruits and vegetables from growers, processors and retailers into dried, plant-based powders and solid food ingredients.
The funding will help support expansion of the company’s demonstration plant in Dartmouth, N.S., and commission a new full-scale facility in Burlington, Ont.
The two plants are projected to process up to 35.8 million tonnes of waste fruit and vegetables by 2024 into more than 4.1 million pounds of plant-based, powdered ingredients annually, a conversion rate of about 12 percent.
Business case competition launches
The Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council and the Business + Higher Education Roundtable has launched the inaugural Growing Our People: National Business Case Competition.
Post-secondary students from across Canada will have the opportunity to explore careers in agriculture and address real-world business problems through direct contact with agriculture employers.
Registration is open until March 4 and students can sign up as teams or as individuals to be placed on a team. Winning teams will be announced March 28.
For more information visit, growing.agriskills.ca/national-competition-home/.
Skills program applications accepted
The federal government is investing up to $3.7 million to enhance the Youth Employment and Skills Program and support about 300 jobs for youth in agriculture.
The program aims to support employers and provide Canadians between the ages of 15 and 30 with job experience in agriculture that could lead to a career.
It will support employers with the cost of hiring Canadian youth with an additional focus on those who face employment barriers.
Employers that hire youth facing specific employment barriers will be eligible for 80 percent of the cost of salaries and benefits, up to $14,000.
Applicants will be eligible for an additional $5,000 in funding to address the barriers, including relocation.
Depending on demand, the program will support 50 percent of salaries and benefits for youth who do not face these barriers, up to $14,000.
Employers have until March 21 to apply.
More information is available by contacting aafc.yesp-pecj.aac@canada.ca, or calling 866-452-5558.
