| |
HOLIDAY DINNERS ROLLING FROM STATE WAREHOUSE TO SCHOOL CAFETERIAS
Turkey and trimmings are on the way to school cafeterias throughout West Virginia via the West Virginia Department of Agriculture's (WVDA) Food Distribution Program, which manages ordering, storage, distribution and accounting of food allocated by the federal government for state food programs.
Overall, West Virginia schoolchildren will consume roughly six tractor-trailer loads of turkey through school lunch programs for the holiday, according to Jean Smith, Director of Marketing and Development for the WVDA.
"Turkey is definitely popular this time of year, but we also provide a wide variety of canned fruits and vegetables, other meats and partially prepared products, such as frozen pizza," Smith said.
Smith explained that the Food Distribution Program surveys schools in the spring to determine what foods they would like to have in the fall, then compares those lists with the food the U.S. Department of Agriculture will have available at particular times throughout the year. Schools also are free to purchase other food from private vendors.
"We do our best to get schools what they want, but we also realize that there is going to be a higher demand for certain items at certain times and order those as early as we can," she said.
Frozen foods are now stored in a brand-new, 5,000-square-foot, sub- zero freezer that replaces one that was destroyed in mid-July after an exterior wall of the warehouse collapsed.
The warehouse was repaired and the new freezer in place in mid-September, said Smith. Nearly 150,000 cases of food worth roughly $3.3 million – or about 120 tractor-trailer loads - have moved through the warehouse since school started. WVDA operates four tractor trailers and one smaller truck that make deliveries to school systems five days a week.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
|
