If You Feed a Farmer a Potato
/
Malin students Ruben Cararez, Keagan Dunlea and Parker Staunton eat baked potatoes for lunch with Lori Baley, one of the local farmers with Cal-Ore Produce.
Local farmers donate to schools; join students for lunch
Marc Staunton chatted with Jack Hawkins as the second-grader dug into his baked potato during lunch at Malin Elementary School.
Hawkins and his classmates were treated to locally grown potatoes for lunch last week. The potatoes, provided by Cal-Ore Produce, which includes Staunton, who owns Staunton Farms with his wife, Ami, and four other farming families, were served during an annual event, called “Feed a Farmer,” part of the Farm-to-School program operated in cooperation with OSU Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center, the Klamath County School District and Klamath Falls City Schools.
In all, Cal-Ore donated 28 cases – about 1,900 potatoes -- to area schools for use in their cafeterias. Klamath County district schools that participated included Bonanza, Lost River, Gilchrist, Henley, Chiloquin, Merrill, Malin, Shasta, Stearns and Sage Community School.
The Stauntons and Lori Baley, who farm in the Lost River area, joined the Malin students for lunch, topping their baked potatoes with cheese, vegetables and homegrown beef produced by Lost River Junior-Senior High School’s FFA program.
Marc Staunton said watching students eat potatoes his business would otherwise ship out of the area is rewarding.
“We want a healthy community and having a food source locally is a good part of that,” he said. “I have kids in the schools … there’s a sentimental side of providing food for the school system.”
Press release provided from the Klamath County School District.
Marc Staunton of Staunton Farms talks to Jack Hawkins, a second-grader at Malin Elementary School, about the potato he is eating for lunch. Staunton, who was among local farmers who donated potatoes to school cafeterias, was visiting the school and eating with students as part of a Farm-to-School event called Feed A Farmer.