Youth led Farm to School project launches in Perkins County; PCCFF, FFA and area producers team up for the program
BY BECKY UEHLING
GRANT TRIBUNE Correspondent
What started out as a youth visioning session led by the Perkins County Community Foundation Fund in April 2024, culminated into students at Perkins County school system enjoying locally homegrown beef during two separate meals in October 2025.
“In April 2024, the Perkins County Community Foundation Fund had a youth engagement session to see what our area youth sees for the future of Perkins County. One of the ideas was to bring fresh vegetables and beef into the school,” said Michelle Ross, treasurer of PCCFF.
From that meeting, Ross approached Perkins County Ag Teacher and FFA Advisor Seth Burge to see how the students’ vision could be made into a reality.
“I asked him about how can we get locally raised beef into the school lunch? Seth took the idea and approached the head cook at Perkins County Schools and they started working on this great new project called Farm to School,” Ross said.
The Farm to School project was created from scratch by Burge, the students and the school with the vision and the needs the students had identified. “Our mission is to connect local food producers to the cafeteria at Perkins County Schools,” Burge said, which is exactly what they did.
PCCFF assisted with launching the program by creating a subaccount for it to assist with financial management, and providing a $2,500 grant for seed money. From there, the Perkins County FFA chapter created a Farm to School committee at its August 2024 meeting to allow more members of the chapter to be involved in the development and operation of the new program, Burge said.
“The PCCFF members have been great to work with and I hope that they continue to provide monetary support of the program as it continues to remain useful,” he said.
Next the students and Burge approached area cattle producers to get buy-in.
“We are blessed to have beef donors that had the same vision as we did, and generously contributed the first beef animals to harvest for the program,” Burge said. These included Casey and Nicole Tjaden of Tjaden Ranch, Kasey and Amy Kroeker of Kroeker Farms, and Derek Wilson of Wilson Feedyard Inc.
The first meal of chili made with local beef was served on Wednesday, Oct. 1, and hamburgers were grilled for lunch on Thursday, Oct. 16. “I heard many positive comments about the food,” Burge said, adding that students across the district are already looking forward to more beef on the menu.
Now that it’s up and running, the Perkins County FFA and PCCFF will continue to recruit more local beef donors and look to add more locally grown food donations to the program, he said, but more support is needed.
“Beyond the initial investment from PCCFF, support is needed to provide processing fees of livestock,” Burge said any donation would be appreciated and will be kept in the Farm to School subaccount with the Perkins County Community Foundation Fund.
“Both the commodity and cash can be considered a charitable gift to a 501c3 organization,” he said.
Burge said it makes him excited to collaborate between so many students and community members to make the program possible.
“We’ve made connections between the school’s food service staff, FFA members, PCCFF youth and adult members, local producers, Nebraska Community Foundation representatives, processing facilities, and other community members. The program wouldn’t be possible without all of these moving parts and people willing to work together,” he said.
To find out more about the PCHS and PCCFF’s Farm to School program, contact either Burge at the school by calling 308-352-6435 or Ross at 308-882-8469.