Annex school kids get education in farm to market

Those onions you slice on the cutting board at home, or the ones you may bite into while eating a cheeseburger at a restaurant add a little something extra for many.
 But most don’t consider where they come from or the process required to get them from the field to your dinner plate.
 On Friday, Sept. 3, however, teachers brought around 55 students, in third through eighth grades, from Annex Charter School just across the street to a field where growers gave them a first-hand look at how it’s done.
 “We just thought these kids are right next to an onion field and yet they don’t have a clue what goes on; it’s an education in Farm to Market,” said Kenet Haun, an Annex School teacher’s aide and co-owner of Haun Packing across the Snake River in Weiser.
 Haun Packing sorts, bags, and ships onions produced by local farmers, sending area onions via semi trucks to customers all over the country.
 Kenet and husband Fred, Herb and Kelly Haun, and Stuart and Shawna Syme own the packing facility, which employs parents of some of the kids that attend the school.
 “A lot of the kids here at Annex, their folks work in the industry,” Kenet said. “They may be at Fry Foods or Ore-Ida and they don’t even know what they do; they just know their parents work their tails off. And, it’s not easy work. We want everyone to know how much we appreciate these people.”
 The kids stood at the edge of a field owned by local grower Bryan Bachelder, owner of Bachelder Farms based in Ontario. Bachelder was featured on the cover of a 2020 edition of the industry magazine “Onion World” where he shared his philosophy of “Quality over Quantity.”
 The students watched with interest as an onion harvester picked up the onions from the ground and transferred them via conveyor to a truck running alongside.
 “They are learning about the local farm economy. It’s an important part of our community,” said seventh and eighth grade teacher Joe Burris.
 Clara Mae, 12, asked Herb Haun, who led the guided tour, about how many onions were in the field.
 “Under a normal year, without extreme heat, this field would yield about three of those trucks per acre,” he explained. “And, two of those trucks per acre represents about a semi-truck load that goes to market. So this year, after the heat, most of these fields are yielding about two of those trucks per acre.
 “On a normal year, Idaho and Oregon is known for having big onions. Smaller onions usually go to the grocery store and the bigger ones go to places like restaurants, or they go to make onion rings.”
 “It’s really cool; it’s a hard job,” said Jaxon Hart, 12, a Seattle Seahawk fan who said he someday wants to work in the NFL.
 Once the truck was full, it headed to Haun Packing, the large group of kids following behind in a school bus.
 At the facility, the onions were sorted by size and bagged, Herb describing the process and introducing foreman Ivan Flores, whose daughter, Samantha, is a seventh-grader at Annex School.
 “I think it’s cool that Samantha gets to show other students what her dad does and be proud of it,” Kenet said.
 Samantha was all smiles as Herb spoke to the group about her father.
 “He’s the hardest worker here,” he said, patting Ivan on the shoulder. “I think that’s a sign of a pretty good boss.”
 Fred and Herb Haun began farming together in 1979 before founding Haun Packing about 22 years ago.
 “We think it’s important for these kids to know where their groceries come from and how it ends up getting to them in stores, coming from the field to the table,” Fred said. “There are a lot of people that don’t understand, and they don’t know the labor and the expense involved in it.”
 Herb had a message for the students hanging on to his every word:
 “Study hard and get an education,” he said. “The more you learn, the better job you’re going to get, so study hard and do that homework at night.”
 

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