Durand FFA host Great Apple Crunch Day

    The Durand FFA hosted Great Apple Crunch Day at Durand Schools on Oct. 12. The FFA club partnered with the Illinois Farm to School Network and Edward’s Orchard West in Winnebago to provide this experience to over 500 students and staff at Durand schools.

    Each classroom received a bag of apples and information on the event. Elementary students also received activity sheets to work on while enjoying their apples. They had some creative second-graders trying to figure out how to eat their apples with no front teeth!

    Great Apple Crunch Day is an annual celebration of fresh, local apples on the second Thursday of October, during National Farm to School Month. The Illinois Crunch is part of the Midwest Great Apple Crunch, celebrated in the neighboring states of Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Schools, early child care facilities, and other child education programs across Illinois can participate by serving local apples on the lunch tray or in the classroom, and ‘crunch’-ing into them together all at the same time.

    At Durand schools, they crunched on Pixie Crunch Apples from Edwards Apple Orchard West. This apple type is small-medium in size with green base skin that blushes to a dark red color. Its flesh is yellow and extremely crispy. Its chosen name, Pixie Crunch, reflects these traits.