SALEM, Ohio – Fundraisers by FFA chapters across the country have included tractor pulls, flower sales, raffles, dinners, donkey basketball and Valentine’s Day deliveries.

A few years ago, Clay Winland, owner and operator of Winland Catering and Concessions, entered the scene by offering Winland’s Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn as a fundraiser for Ohio FFA programs.

Winland, a former FFA student, is a fixture at many county fair across the Buckeye State, selling tenderloins, steak burgers and French fries – and of course, kettle corn.

“My favorite part of the whole entire thing is delivering the kettle corn to see the different FFA programs around,” Winland said. “We have some fantastic ag programs in the state, and just to be able to see them – that’s probably my favorite part. It’s enjoyable seeing programs get excited to make money.”

Agriculture was already in Winland’s blood. He was a chapter president of West Muskingum FFA in high school and served as an FFA adviser and ag teacher at Philo High School. His wife, Julie, was a member of Tri-Valley FFA. Both were in 4-H as kids.

He began selling food at fairs in 2017, offering up tenderloins and steak from his trailer. In a short time, he expanded, adding three more trailers for French fries, corn dogs and kettle corn. He quit his teaching job in 2019 to pursue his business full-time. But then, COVID-19 struck in 2020.

Many fairs and festivals that Winland catered to were canceled that year, and his business nearly came to a stop. The Winlands also discovered that the pandemic affected FFA chapters in many ways. Chapters’ many community events were shelved and many chapters resorted to virtual learning to fill that time. All this led to the couple thinking about FFA programs and what they must be going through. They saw the suffering and wanted to lend a hand.

“When I taught ag, I realized a lot of the corporate fundraising companies don’t give the kids back much money,” he said. “A lot of schools pump all their money into sports and athletics instead of these programs. We wanted to help these FFA programs.”

The Winlands created a fundraiser through their kettle corn business where 40 percent of the proceeds go back to local FFA chapters. After gaining permission from the Ohio FFA Foundation, he pitched his fundraiser to several FFA chapters. Today, FFA, 4-H and non-affiliated school programs in several Ohio counties are using Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn as their fundraiser.

After receiving orders for the kettle corn, Winland and his family deliver the 20-inch bags to schools within three days of popping the corn. The bags sell for $10, with four dollars going back to the chapters.

Schools in the Ohio counties of Carroll, Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Noble, Muskingum, Perry, Licking, Morgan, Paulding, Seneca, Clark, Fulton, Defiance, Holmes, Wayne, Pickaway and Ross are using the kettle corn as their fundraiser.

“We’ve had 4-H groups as small as 12 kids earn $1,500 and one 4-H girl from Utica, Ohio, sold 137 bags, raising $548 for her 4-H group,” Winland said.

Winland offers six flavors of popcorn: cinnamon butter, cinnamon roll, original kettle corn, caramel apple, movie theater butter (sugar-free) and caramel kettle corn.

“There’s not that many groups targeting ag programs like we are, but we’re just big fans,” Winland said. “I’m hopeful both my kids will join their FFA when the time comes because it was good to us when we were in school.”

According to the National FFA Organization, some frequent and popular FFA fundraisers include online auctions, farm-to-table dinners, yard sales, water bottle fundraisers, bake sales, bingo nights, read-a-thons, tractor rides, pie sales and ugly truck contests.

According to Julie Woodard, senior manager, communications, for the National FFA Organization, various fundraisers in the past have helped FFA chapters in the Farm World readership area.

“In Ohio, the Valley View MVCTC-FFA hosted a school-wide duck hunt to support the local food pantry,” Woodard said. “The officers hid ducks around the school and students purchased duck licenses to hunt them. In Illinois, Carlinville FFA collected milk caps to recycle, turning the proceeds into park benches for its school. The Mason FFA Chapter in Mason, Mich., tapped maple trees and collected the sap to make pure maple syrup and sell it.”