ARLINGTON, VA -- Promotional events and activities are held throughout September, National Rice Month (NRM), to celebrate the harvest underway, and show support for rice farming families. To help spread awareness of NRM, USA
Rice will have daily social media postings on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram covering topics such as sustainability and conservation, health and nutrition, farming, rice recipes, and fun facts. New photos, videos, and infographics will also be released throughout the month.
"Social media provides a direct line of communication to people, and it helps to grab their attention with interesting videos and images," said Colleen Klemczewski, USA Rice social media coordinator. "This summer, our most popular posts on Facebook were infographics about rice - they received more than 300 'likes' and 500 'shares,' exposing more than 45,000 people to our messaging. We're excited to reveal our new content in celebration of National Rice Month and anticipate it will generate a lot of interest and activity."
"It's important to take advantage of NRM to tell our story - U.S.-grown rice is healthy, locally-grown, and good for the environment," said Byron Holmes, USA Rice Nutrition Subcommittee chairman. "Not only do our activities help drive those messages home, I think they contribute to a sense of pride all U.S. rice farmers should feel for what they do. "
All month long, high school seniors in rice producing states will be conducting their own NRM promotions to enter the annual NRM scholarships contest, sponsored by Dow AgroSciences. Teens will plan creative activities to promote U.S.-grown rice, NRM, and the importance of rice growing in their state. Be on the lookout for promotions going on in your state and support our scholarship applicants.
National Rice Month will also be celebrated in the classroom. USA Rice is continuing its school education outreach by partnering again with Young Minds Inspired (YMI) to electronically distribute the Think Rice education program to 5,000 teachers in all six rice states and beyond.
"We received such positive feedback from teachers in the spring, we thought National Rice Month would be a perfect time to remind them about the program and encourage them to use it with their new classes," said Holmes. "We also sent the program to school districts outside of the rice growing states to reach teachers that regularly participate in the YMI program."