EITC Designation
EITC Press Release for Flint Hill Farm Educational Center, Inc. (FHFEC)
Good News to Business Owners! Flint Hill Farm Educational Center, Inc., a nonprofit agricultural education center located in Coopersburg, PA, wishes to announce that they have been recognized by the State of PA Department of Community and Economic Development to enable Pennsylvania businesses to make contributions to education improvement organizations, such as the Flint Hill Farm Educational Center. We are now listed as an approved Educational Improvement Organization.
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In 2001, Pennsylvania enacted the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC), which offers tax credits to Pennsylvania corporations that provide funds to Educational Improvement Organizations for an unduplicated Ag-Ed School to Farm program, otherwise unavailable to these needy students.
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Specific Programs Include:
Year round School to Farm Educational Tours - grades K-8
Three Season Traveling Farm to School Education Exhibit - K-8
Summer Farm Day Camp - ages 7-14
Summer Horse Lovers Day Camp - ages 7-14
Flint Hill Farm Educational Center serves 4000+ students, teachers, parents, and extended family members from the Greater Lehigh Valley area annually through camps, Open Houses, classes, and exhibits. Located on a preserved working dairy in Coopersburg, PA, farmed by Kathleen Fields and a host of generous volunteers, the Educational Center is home to cows, sheep, goats, chickens, and ducks, which contribute milk and eggs to the dairy; horses, ponies, pigs, dogs, cats, and other critters too varied to list, on 27 acres in Coopersburg.
It is the only working farm in the Lehigh Valley with School to Farm courses supporting the PA Department of Education’s ‘Agriculture & Society’ curriculum. Students enjoy and experience farm animals - watching and learning how to care for and feed them. They learn nutrition and dairy basics - how cheese, butter, yogurt, and kefir are derived from goat, sheep, and cow milk. They visit the blacksmith forge, handle all the tools needed to shoe a horse, and can watch demonstrations in the summer. They take a Woods Walks, during which they identify the trees, animals, flowers, birds, and insects that inhabit the wilder portion of the farm. They visit community gardens and the greenhouse to learn about soil preservation, sustainability, food sources, and proper stewardship of natural resources. In the late spring and fall, students observe all of the farming equipment and take a tractor drawn wagon ride. The new aquaponics exhibit, a means of growing herbs in the solar room, has become an inclusive science project in and of itself.
If your business has not applied to take advantage of the EITC program, and you want to learn more, please visit dced.pa.gov/programs/educational-improvement-tax-credit-program-eitc/. Please call FHFEC office with questions (610-838-2928) and visit our website www.flinthillfarm.org.