SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [Fish Factor] by Laine Welch - Feb 8, 2010 -
Alaska Head Start is taking its hat off to Peter Pan Seafoods and Bristol Bay fishermen this week at a special ceremony on Wednesday in Juneau. The seafood company will be recognized as the top Corporate Sponsor by the state Head Start Association for the role it has played in providing local salmon to children and elders throughout Southwest Alaska. 'Head Start is not an easy program to run and this has been such a success. This annual award is one way we can really stand up and recognize the folks who go way above and beyond in Alaska for Head Start,' said regional director Anne Shade, who nominated Peter Pan for the honor. The 'salmon to schools' program was spearheaded four years ago in Dillingham by school lunch director Patty Luckhurst, now retired after 21 years with the district. 'It drove me crazy that the best fish in the world was swimming by and yet none of it was available to our school kids,' Luckhurst said. She approached Peter Pan manager Tom Whinihan who put out a call to fishermen to donate part of their sockeye salmon catch to the kids. The company earmarked tenders in three regions for the donations, which Peter Pan processed and packaged for free. 'Tom Whinihan is a gem. He is really dedicated to this community,' Luckhurst added. So far about 50,000 pounds has been donated to the program, which has expanded from Dillingham schools to nine outlying village schools. 'Those schools also prepare meals for the elders in their villages, and they each have Head Start programs. So we're getting salmon meals to well over 1,000 kids and elders at least once a week,' Luckhurst said. Serving fish that is caught and processed locally saves the Dillingham school district roughly $12,000 in freight and other costs each year, she added.  'The response has been so great,' said Jeanne Timmerman, Head Start wellness manager. 'It makes so much sense that you can hardly believe it happens in this day and age,' she added with a laugh. Peter Pan's Tom Whinihan agrees. 'Gosh, this salmon is part of their culture, yet there was so much farmed fish like Trout Treasures being brought in. This is such a team effort and it's so easy to do once you get it going. The end result is all the little people and elders benefit from it. I do feel very grateful for it,' Whinihan said.  Whinihan is always quick to credit the local fishermen. 'They are the ones doing the hard work and being so generous with their donations. We help facilitate it and ours is the easy part.' he said. Ultimately, the hope is that similar partnerships will occur in other regions. 'We hope our fish message gets out to all the state. We would love to see it happen in other Alaska communities,' Anne Shade said. 'If we can do this with a local processor here, there is no reason other schools and communities that have fish processors can't do the same thing,' Patty Luckhurst emphasized. 'It would be such a good thing if they all got together and made it happen,' Whinihan said. 'It's so easy and it is not a lot of effort on anyone's part once you get it going. So much of it is just good communication before hand, and then it all falls into place.'