Florida Farm Bureau, agriculture specialists provide produce to students

Richbourg School student Andrew Babbitt, 21, selects a sweet potato from the back of a trailer.

CRESTVIEW — Richbourg student Jacob  Luttrell, 20, said he was planning to cook and eat the sweet potato he received during the Farm-City Week tractor parade that stopped by his school on Friday.

Luttrell said he enjoys eating sweet baked potatoes and sweet potato fries.

"I could eat them all day if I wanted to," he said.  

Several special needs children selected sweet potatoes provided by volunteers with Okaloosa County Florida Farm Bureau and the Okaloosa County extension office of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. 

"Every year when they come by, (students) love to go and grab the produce," said Karen Rogers-Wooten, an adaptive Physical Education instructor at Richbourg. "A lot of them are not used to seeing tractors come down the street."

Volunteers driving the two tractors pulling the fresh produce stopped by the school to hand out sweet potatoes in an effort to educate students about agriculture.

Local farmers and FFB board members donated the produce, including mustard greens and cabbage, for the event.  

Farm-City Week celebrates the mutual partnership between farmers and urban residents, while emphasizing the importance of domestic agriculture production, according to the bureau's website.

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown at 850-682-6524 or matthewb@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbMatthew.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Florida Farm Bureau, agriculture specialists provide produce to students