Join the Crunch at Once Event

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Local students will bite into an Oregon apple to celebrate Farm-to-School month

In celebration of National Farm-to-School month, students at Sage Community School, Bonanza, Chiloquin, Malin, Merrill, Shasta, Stearns, Henley, Pelican and Conger elementary schools will “Crunch at Once” at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 30 by simultaneously biting into an Oregon-grown apple.

Members of the public and other organizations can still register and join the Crunch at Once event, a celebration of farmers that grow our food.

“This is a fun and delicious way to create awareness of local efforts to integrate Oregon grown foods into school cafeterias,” said Patty Case, family and community health agent for the OSU Klamath Basin Extension Center and a coordinator of the local Farm-to-School efforts. “Purchasing Oregon-grown food for schools takes extra effort but everyone wins — the students, the farmer and the local economy.”

OSU Extension’s Farm-to-School program is purchasing apples from Valley View Orchards in Ashland and using other apples donated by the Oregon Food Bank from Milton-Freewater in Umatilla County for the event.

Oregon State University Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center has partnered with Klamath County School District and Klamath Falls City Schools to promote Oregon-grown foods in the cafeteria. Local farms that have linked with school cafeterias include Flying T Ranch, PoeTential Eggs, Bellweather Farms, Sweet Union Farm, Daniel Farm and Valley View Orchards.

“Students are more likely to try new foods when they know where the food is grown,” Case said.

If you want to be part of the collective activity that brings the community together by the simple act of crunching into a local apple, join the “Crunch at Once,” by registering at https://goo.gl/forms/qqkdLIZpxMk7fvTW2 , go to OSU KBEC Facebook or contact Patty Case at patty.case@oregonstate.edu, 541-883-7131

Press release provided from the OSU Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center.