La Grande Pride
LOCAL BUY
continued from page 4
Panike admits it may be
more economical and easier
to buy beef straight from
one local rancher, “but I get
more mileage buying it from
the students because there’s
a whole bunch of people
at that auction house that
know La Grande School
District is buying local
meat, which helps our food
service program.”
It’s important to the
district that the community
feels their “love, care, and
serve” values as it supports
their kids and local growers
in this important way. It
is a win-win for everyone
involved.
This coming school year,
it appears that even more
local producers will benefi t
from the program funding
because the recently passed
Oregon House bill 2579 pro-
vided an additional $10.35
million from the state
general fund through 2021,
increasing total funding
from $4.5 million to nearly
$15 million.
“Because of this I’m an-
ticipating that there’s going
to be more resources avail-
able to allow us to buy more
local produce,” said Panike.
“I’m trying to spread that
out a little bit to local grow-
ers, but we need volume
because we feed about 1400
lunch meals a day, so that
takes a lot of produce.”
Panike said school dis-
tricts can consult a website
directory of producers in
their area, which will assist
schools in connecting with
local growers. Making those
www.lagrandesd.org • September 2019
connections is the ultimate
goal of the Farm to School
Program. That directory
can be found at http://por-
tal.oregonharvestforschools.
com/ and Panike encourages
the local producers to sign
up.
Currently, the bulk of the
money Panike receives for
this program is spent out at
the livestock show “because
it is invested in the kids,” he
said.
The six students who
raised pigs purchased by
Panike at last June’s live-
stock show include: Cory
Sievert, Reagan Hannah,
Morgan Rynearson, Noah
Insko, Bryce Wagner and
Lydia Hasbell.
Bryce Wagner, 13, at-
tends the La Grande Middle
School, and he sold his pig
named “Bacon” that he
raised on his grandmother’s
farm on Hot Lake Lane.
“My pig weighed 260
pounds, and I spent about 4
to 5 months raising it before
the auction,” he said. “It
was my fi rst time selling a
pig, and I was pretty sur-
prised I got $913 for it and
my profi t was $614.”
Wagner spent the auc-
tion morning keeping Bacon
clean and cool until it was
Bacon’s turn to strut his
ham in front of the auc-
tion buyers. Before Wagner
knew it, Bacon was sold to
a buyer, who then sold it to
Panike for the school dis-
trict.
“It makes me feel happy
and good to know the buyer
sold it to the school district,
and it will feed a lot of
people,” Wagner said.
5
La Grande Middle School classrooms.
EXTRA MILE
continued from page 3
it’s easy for him to speak to
the kids on their level. “I
have a lot of life’s experi-
ences that I share with
them. They appreciate the
cut and dry facts, and they
defi nitely don’t like being
patronized.”
When Bowen fi rst started
with the district, the kids
weren’t sure of his role
there. “But at this point
now, all the seniors to sixth
graders know who I am.
I’ve spent hours in their
classroom, days, weeks,
months, and I am also the
assistant coach for softball,
so they are defi nitely com-
fortable with me.”
They know Bowen as the
good guy, a fun guy but also
the guy that imposes conse-
quences when they make a
bad choice. Because of this,
they confi de in him about
things they might not tell
any other adult.
“I attribute that to be-
ing there, giving the kids
a trusted adult to talk to,
whether I have a badge
and a gun or me walking
through Walmart,” he said.
His home is an open door,
whenever kids want to come
over and hang out. Bowen
has two daughters in the
school, a senior and a sopho-
more, so kids see him as a
father, a coach, a sheriff’s
deputy and a trusted adult.
Sixth grade teacher
Dalton Sheets has been
teaching for six years at the
Middle School. His class
is self-contained, meaning
he teaches all subjects to
virtually the same students
all day long. In this kind
of classroom, Sheets starts
the year building a culture
surrounding themes about
respecting one another and
working as a team.
“Sometimes we will do
little class meetings if there
are issues arising that don’t
represent love, care and
serve. Then we talk about
those issues and brainstorm
ways we can fi x that togeth-
er,” he said.
A fundamental part of
applying the love, care,
serve model, is by providing
that structure the students
may not have at home.
“Kids like structure
whether they know it or
not, so it takes a little bit to
get used to that, but they
defi nitely know how much
you care about them and
once you have that piece, it
makes the rest of the year
go a lot smoother,” Sheets
said.
Sheets also is a coach, and
he tries to approach every-
thing from a team concept
because coaching and teach-
ing are very linked, he said.
“When you get the kids
to buy into ‘We’re all in this
together, and we’re all going
to achieve great things to-
gether,’ it encourages them
to also be loving and car-
ing to their classmates and
serve them in a capacity
that helps them.”
DRIVERS
continued from page 2
This remodel will make
the kitchen available this
year for use by culinary arts
students, and it’s reportedly
the most popular CTE class
available.