As part of their recent Farm to School grant received and funded by the USDA, KHC is partnering with FoodChain of Lexington to develop and distribute a shelf-stable, all KY-grown, healthy snack food for Kentucky students. The snack food will consist of dried apples and blueberries, along with popcorn, and will be binded with honey.
This week, KHC staff members Cindy Finneseth, Bethany Prekopa, and McKenzie Fox headed to the UK Research and Education Center at Princeton to pick approximately 6,000+ lbs. of fuji apples for use in the snack food. FoodChain will be processing and packaging approximately 10,000 units of the snack food, but first will do taste tests and trials to determine the best recipe to meet school nutrition requirements and be tasty for kids! KHC will be completing an economic analysis, as part of the USDA grant, to determine the feasibility of getting the snack food into Kentucky schools. We are very excited at the prospect of this alternative sales route for our local KY farmers and the possibility of getting a KY proud and healthy snack food into the schools for our youth to enjoy!
We want to thank the UK Research and Education Center at Princeton for their donation of the apples and for helping us pick them! We also want to thank Clem’s Refrigerated Foods (Lexington) for allowing us to store the apples there before being processed by FoodChain. Look out for updates on the snack food in the near future!
For more information, contact KHC at info@kyhortcouncil.org or (859) 490-0889.
