State to award Elida schools, local farmer

Elida Schools and Margie Plummer, manager of the Roosevelt and Curry County farmer’s markets and business manager for Floyd Municipal Schools, will receive top awards this month in a statewide Golden Chile Awards Program.

The awards are recognition for connecting students to locally grown food through meals and educational activities.

The awards program recognizes farmers, school districts, senior centers and preschools in a four-tiered recognition program – Seed, Sprout, Blossom and Golden Chile -- designed to acknowledge all levels of involvement in New Mexico’s local food movement. State officials will recognize the 31 winners at a virtual celebration Wednesday.

The Elida school district’s Blossom award – the second highest award category -- reflects the district’s efforts to buy and serve locally grown food in student meals, cultivate a school garden, and promote New Mexico grown food.

“There’s a huge difference between store-bought products and off-the-vine fresh. It’s so much better,” Elida’s food service director Beth Fair said. “I guess the kids think so too because they keep coming back for more.”

Fair buys a variety of homegrown products, including melons, peppers, squash, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes from Plummer and Eric Nelson from Nelson Farms in Texico.

Fair also goes out of her way to find other options too, such as meeting an Otero County farmer in Roswell to buy his freshly picked apples.

The NM Grown program granted Elida $6,617 this school year to buy locally grown produce and for the first time, local beef.

Statewide, the NM Grown program awarded its highest level of grants this school year -- $1.27 million for schools, $300,000 for preschools, and $530,000 for senior centers.

Plummer grows such produce as melons, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, and black-eyed peas over more than 30 acres in Portales. She earned a Blossom award for selling a variety of fruits and vegetables to schools in Portales, Elida and Floyd.

Plummer promotes the importance of local grown produce through school field trips to her pumpkin patch, and at her small store and nursery where she sells produce and starter plants to encourage home gardening.