The College of Agriculture will honor businessman and longtime supporter Jim Hicks at its inaugural Spring Harvest Farm 2 Table dinner event on Saturday, March 21.
Hicks will receive the first Agricultural Achievement Award for his accomplishments in industry and support for agricultural education.
He is president and CEO of Jim Hicks and Co. in Brea, a wholesale distributor of commercial fertilizers that serves the agriculture industry in the Western United States and Mexico.
Hicks serves on the board of the California Ag in the Classroom program. Since 2009, he has provided scholarships for students in the agriculture program at Cal Poly Pomona and helped fund the expansion of the university’s AGRIscapes complex.
“Jim has a passion for teaching future generations the connection between agriculture and food, for showing the links between farming and science, engineering, biology and so many other industries,” said Mary Holz-Clause, dean of the College of Agriculture. “He exemplifies leadership, achievement and community. He’s an ambassador for agriculture and everything that our students and alumni should aspire to be.”
The College of Agriculture will present the award annually to an honoree from the agriculture industry. The award will be renamed in Hicks’ honor.
The Spring Harvest Farm 2 Table event is a celebration of Southern California-grown foods. It will be held at Cal Poly Pomona’s AGRIscapes complex and feature food raised by students using sustainable practices and prepared by local chefs. Students also will share their agricultural education experiences and tell those lessons have shaped their lives.
The College of Agriculture plans to make the event an annual affair with the presentation of the Jim Hicks Agricultural Achievement Award.
The College of Agriculture is the founding college on the Cal Poly Pomona campus and is home to about 1,800 students in five departments, including plant science, animal and veterinary science, human nutrition and food science, apparel merchandising, and management and agribusiness.
The college also is home to research centers in horses, food safety, turf irrigation and landscape technology, apparel technology, the Farm Store at Kellogg Ranch and the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center.