CRESTVIEW — Richbourg E.S.E. School student Joshua Kline knows what he’ll be having for dinner soon: a fresh-from-the-field sweet potato.
“Probably Mom will cook it,” the 14-year-old said.
Joshua was among Richbourg students who attended Friday’s annual Farm-to-City parade. Each student could select a tuber — from the mound of spuds in a tractor’s front bucket — when the Okaloosa County Farm Bureau and University of Florida-Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension's procession paused at the school.
The annual harvest parade, which begins on Main Street and ends at Woodlawn Baptist Church, is an opportunity to show the community the bounty and variety that local farmers produce, Farm Bureau federation secretary Molly Huffman said.
At Woodlawn, organizers distributed to local needy families two farm trailers full of produce, including peanut butter and grits and corn meal from Beaver Creek Farms in Baker that had been freshly ground at the University of Florida’s West Florida Research Center in Jay.
Caleb Williams, 9, took a couple of hours off from Bob Sikes Elementary School to help his father, extension Director Larry Williams, haul sacks of produce during the parade.
Larry Williams said Caleb and his sister, Abigail, find the stop at Richbourg School not only one of the event's highlights, but also inspiration for a possible career working with developmentally challenged kids.
“After they experience this, they want to work with the disabled,” Williams said. “Thanksgiving is a time of seeing you are fortunate and blessed.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Farm-City Week concludes with annual produce parade, giveaway (PHOTOS, VIDEO)