EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. - The U.S. potato industry has worked for years to get kids to eat more spuds and other vegetables.
Now, the East Grand Forks, Minn.,-based Northern Plains Potato Growers Association has launched another go-around of a program that puts free salad bars in schools.
The association will pay the cost, nearly $3,000, to place one of the salad bars in a school district in North Dakota or northwest Minnesota.
Potatoes USA will match the donation to a second school district in that area. Potatoes USA, formerly known as the U.S. Potato Board, is the nation's potato marketing organization.
Last year, the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association donated a salad bar to the Park River, N.D., School District. Potatos USA matched the donation with a salad bar in the Fort Yates, N.D., School District.
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The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota is the nation's leading producer of red potatoes and the only region that produces in volume for the chip, fresh, seed and process markets.
Ted Kreis, marketing and communications director of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, requests that 2017 applications be made as soon as possible.
The application form is available at
Any" target="_blank">www.saladbars2schools.org/.
Any school, public or private, that participates in the National School Lunch Program is eligible to apply, according to information on the web site. Kreis says that a North Dakota or northwest Minnesota school district that applies also needs to notify him so the potato growers group can send up funding.Kreis can be reached at tkreis@nppga.org or 218-773-3633.
