Woonsocket school was one of two South Dakota school districts to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service to purchase equipment for their food service programs.

Woonsocket School received $25,000, which will be used toward purchasing a new oven for the kitchen. The new oven will be bigger, with an ability to simultaneously cook different foods at different temperatures. The school’s food service director, Jessica Anderson, stated in their grant application, “Our student enrollment has continued to increase … With this increase, we will need to increase the amount of food we are preparing, and our current equipment is not able to hold the amount, [and] when you do fill the oven, it [does] not cook the food evenly, which is decreasing the quality and safety of the food we are serving.” She also stated that the additional cooking settings that the oven offers would also allow them to try new recipes for the students to enjoy.

On Tuesday, March 25, the Sanborn Central/Woonsocket FFA students traveled to Parkston to participate in the District IV CDE competitions for their chance to qualify for the State Convention being held in Brookings, April 3-5. The SCW students showed off their knowledge and skill at the competition when seven out of the 10 teams from Sanborn County qualified for state.

The SCW Floriculture team of Emilie Lindgren, Kenzie Baruth, Kenzie Uecker and Addy Baruth earned second place out of 13 teams. Lindgren, K. Baruth, Uecker and A. Baruth led the SCW students placing fifth, ninth, 21st, and 31st, respectively, out of 57 participants in Floriculture.

The Horse Evaluation team from SCW, including Aubrey Moody, Layton Zoss, Ledoux Bracha and Westen White, placed fourth out of 13 teams. Moody came in eighth, and Zoss came in 12th to lead the SCW Horse Evaluation team at districts out of 48 competitors.

Ian Octavo, Sam Baruth, Cole Wilson, and Michael Foos comprise the SCW Meats Evaluation team; they came in second in their competition out of six teams. Out of 26 competitors, Octavo, Baruth and Wilson placed fourth, fifth and 10th, respectively.

The SCW Milk Quality and Products team of Yuli Garcia, Raily Munoz-Martinez, and Greta Bott placed fourth out of eight teams. Garcia received 11th, Munoz-Martinez came in 15th and Bott earned 22nd out of the 40 students competing in the category. 

The SCW Natural Resources State team members are Payton Uecker, Bryce Larson, Grant Edwards, Caleb Kneen, and Clay Moody; they placed second out of 12 teams. The team was led by Uecker in third, Larson in sixth, Edwards in 12th and Kneen and Moody, who tied for 13th, out of 51 students competing in Natural Resources.

The SCW Nursery Landscape State team members are Cami Edwards, Tori Hoffman, Lucy Applegarth and Kaylee Viktora; they placed fourth out of seven teams to stamp their ticket to the state competition. Edwards led the SCW team with a 14th place finish out of 31 individuals.

The Agronomy team of Carter Edwards, Eli White, William Simonds and Parker Ettswold also qualified for State, placing fifth.

Three SCW FFA students placed high enough individually in their CDE category to also qualify for state. Alex Anderson in Agricultural Mechanics placed ninth out of 47 students in the category, Hudson Fouberg in Veterinary Science came in 22nd out of 37 students, and Dani Brooks in Poultry Evaluation also qualified, coming in 12th out of 41 competitors. 

Good luck to all the teams and individuals from Sanborn County headed to the State Convention this weekend.

…See pictures in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!