September is the Celebration of National Rice Month. One of this year’s events will be the 26th annual Delta Rice Tasting Luncheon sponsored by Delta Rice Promotions, Inc., Sept. 16 at Delta State University’s Walter Sillers Coliseum in Cleveland, Miss., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Tickets for this event are $5 and can be purchased from the Extension office of Bolivar County by calling (662) 843-8371. Tickets will also be on sale at the door.

National Rice Month, initiated by Congress, increases awareness of rice and recognizes the contributions made by the U.S. rice industry to America’s economy.

Delta Rice Promotions began informally in 1991 when a group of Extension Service clientele and Farm Bureau members met at the Bolivar County Extension Service to discuss how to celebrate the first ever nationally proclaimed “Rice Month” to be held in September of that year.

That first meeting led to expanding the “Rice Tasting Luncheon” sponsored in past years by the Bolivar County Extension Service and Bolivar County Farm Bureau.