Where can you teach local community members about local produce and ag products and get a tasty snack all in one?

The Crunch Off program is an initiative that provides the space for local agriculturalists to teach others not in the industry about different products grown right in their backyard.

“The idea is to help students to get excited about produce that is locally grown,” says Stacie Turnbull, a regional faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Crunch Off program was created to celebrate Farm to School Month in October. But it is not just students who get to engage with fun programming and tasty snacks. Anyone from the community can “Crunch Off” and spread ag literacy.

“There are day cares that are doing this; there are families that are doing it and all kinds of organizations. Anybody can Crunch Off,” Turnbull says.

All in for cauliflower

The impact of this program not only gets students excited about eating fresh, local produce, but they also learn more about where their food comes from.

“An example of this is when I was out at Burwell High School, and I had gone into the cafeteria when the elementary students were eating,” Turnbull says. “These kids were running up to me to show me their purple cauliflower that was grown right there in Litchfield.”

At Burwell, these students were able to go pick purple cauliflower and have it for lunch that week.

“I do not know any adults that get excited about purple cauliflower, but these kids were so pumped about cauliflower,” Turnbull says. “As parents, we do not spend as much time encouraging kids to eat vegetables, because it is hard work, but when students start to get excited about fruits and vegetables, it is pretty cool.”

Schools across the Mountain Plains region compete in the challenge to see how many different groups can Crunch Off. Nebraska is the reigning champion from 2019 to 2023, contributing 444,379 crunches across the state in 2023.

One group that is competing for the first time this year is Johnson County Central’s FFA chapter, located in Tecumseh, Neb. Members of the JCC FFA chapter went into two elementary classrooms to teach students about how popcorn is widely grown in Nebraska.

In another classroom, they taught students about chicken production and were provided chicken nuggets from the local Smart Chicken plant in Tecumseh.

“I think it is important to teach kids where their food comes from and to learn how it is made,” says Levi Othmer, a junior and FFA secretary at JCC. “I think there are some interesting facts, like Nebraska is the No. 1 producer of popcorn.”

For JCC FFA President Kayden Badertscher, the Crunch Off program is all about teaching the younger generation about how dinner ends up at the table. He sees FFA as a great avenue to teach them that food comes from a farm not far from their own house.

But this program can also open doors to new careers that students might not have thought about.

“I think it is important to plant a seed and get younger students started on what could become their job,” says Nolan Wellensiek, senior and FFA vice president at JCC. “Agriculture is a huge field that there are lots of different jobs. You could be everything from a biochemist to a farmer, and it all helps feed people.”

How to Crunch Off

If you own a day care, teach elementary students or have a group of passionate community members, consider participating in the Crunch Off program next October. Once you register, there are many resources to help create lessons on the local ag products that people are snacking on.

“Most of our producers do not know what the Crunch Off is, but they are all excited about figuring out a way to get their products into the classroom,” Turnbull says. “Producers want to grow a quality product and want to make sure that people are getting the nutrients that they need. Producers are our biggest partners in this.”

When organizing your Crunch Off, look for new recipes or even reach out to a local producer to see if they will partner with you to teach others about agriculture.

To learn more and register, check out the Crunch Off website at education.ne.gov.