The Farm-City Committee of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce was recipient of the “Best Civic Club Activity” award for the state.

The award was given at the annual Alabama Farm-City Awards Luncheon in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Farm-City Committee members, Tammy Powell, Jewel Griffin and June Flowers attended, and Powell accepted the award on behalf of the committee.

The awards are presented in two population divisions — counties with a population of more than 38,000 and those with less.

“Pike County is in the ‘less than’ division,” Powell said. “We were very pleased and honored to receive the ‘Best Civic Club Activity’ because that means that our committee is getting the word out about what Farm-City Week is all about.”

Powell said members of the Farm-City Committee are often invited to speak at different clubs and organizations and readily accept the invitation.

“The Farm-City program is a way for those in both the agricultural world and the urban world to realize how dependent we are on each other,” Powell said. “And, it is a way that we gain a greater appreciation for the other’s world.”

Powell said the Pike County Chamber of Commerce Farm-City Committee is very active all year long, not just during Farm-City Week each November.

Farm-City Week usually kicks off with the signing of a proclamation by the mayors of all four municipalities and the chair of the Pike County Commission designating the week ending on Thanksgiving Day, Farm-City Week in Pike County.

“But our involvement begins much earlier with an exhibit at the Pike County Fair,” Powell said. “We also have mini-farms at the schools and sometimes at a local nursing home. We conduct a Red Hat Ladies Farm Tour and the annual Farm-City Job Swap where individuals from the farming and urban communities swap jobs for a day. We have one of the largest Farm-City poster and essay contest programs in the state.”

Powell said the annual Farm-City newspaper insert is one of only a few in the state and, of course, the committee is actively involved in taking the message of Farm-City Week to the community.

“We also have a huge Farm-City Banquet each year and present awards to those who have been outstanding in different areas of commodity production,” she said. “And our committee is unique in its cooperation among the Troy Kiwanis Club, which was the original sponsor of Farm-City Week in Pike County, the agricultural agencies and the commodity groups.”

Members of the Farm-City Committee are also active in other agricultural endeavors including events of the Pike County Extension Office, the Cattlemen and Cattlewomen associations and the annual Peanut Butter Festival.

“Our Farm-City Committee is among the most diverse in the state and we are proud to promote the partnership between the agricultural and urban communities because we do truly depend on each other each and every day,” Powell said.