Kristi Guilford wants her kids to eat a healthy breakfast, which is why she never feeds her children doughnuts for the most important meal of the day.
However, she might reconsider her stance if the doughnuts were made with whole grains.
“I can see it working well, maybe for a high school student who doesn’t have time for breakfast,” said Guilford of Crystal City, Man.
“When you’re at school, it’s not easy to grab a bowl of cereal and walk down the hall.”
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Guilford heard about whole grain doughnuts at Capturing Opportunities, a value-added conference held in Brandon in April.
Leland Barth, executive director of Dakota Pride Co-operative in Jamestown, North Dakota, told conference participants about a whole grain doughnut project his co-op launched a few years ago with other organizations in the state.
Members of the North Dakota Farmers Union created Dakota Pride in the late 1990s to increase economic opportunities for member farmers through identity preserved production and marketing.
The co-op, which has 200 producer members who farm 100,000 acres, concentrates on two IP crops: non-genetically modified soybeans and hard white spring wheat. IP, which includes traceability back to specific fields and growing particular crop varieties, helps the co-op garner premium prices for its growers, Barth said.
“We’re segregating for traits … that have intrinsic values that the overseas customer is looking for… and extract a premium for those traits.”
The idea for a whole grain doughnut came about three years ago when Barth was golfing with representatives of North Dakota Mill, a state-owned wheat mill, and Fetting’s Frozen Bakery Products of Finley, N.D.
The three companies joined forces to develop and market whole grain doughnuts as a way to increase de-mand for hard white spring wheat and make a few dollars in the process.
A Fetting’s baker developed a formula for the doughnut with 40 percent whole grain, and the partners began marketing the pastry to buyers in North Dakota and Minnesota.
Barth thought they would sell millions of whole grain doughnuts to grocery chains in the Upper Midwest, but it didn’t materialize.
“Initially we thought we could get into some of the grocery stores in the state. But most, if not all, produce their own doughnuts,” he said.
Instead, the group targeted two polar opposite markets: gas station convenience stores and school lunch programs.
They now sell six packs of whole grain doughnuts at Cenex stores in Minnesota and North Dakota.
As well, they distribute doughnuts to eight school districts in the region.
“Some of the (school) dietitians found it compares very well to feeding a bowl of oatmeal to the kids, in terms of fibre and the amount of vitamins,” Barth said.
“One of our biggest markets is a school district just outside of Minneapolis. It’s using the doughnuts on a regular basis.”
Guilford, who questioned Barth on the nutritional content of the doughnuts at the Brandon meeting, is curious but also skeptical about a whole-grain doughnut fried in sunflower oil.
“A doughnut is something I would never think about feeding my kids,” she said.
“(But) the fact that they (students) are eating breakfast and getting some nutrition, maybe there’s a benefit to that.”
While they haven’t seen an explosion in whole grain pastries sales, Barth and his business partners have sold one million plain, powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar doughnuts over the last few years.
In addition, North Dakota Mill sells bags of whole grain flour made from hard white spring wheat.
Consequently, Dakota Pride now contracts 8,000 acres of hard white spring wheat, up from 2,000 several years ago.
Producers who belong to the co-op receive a premium for growing the hard white wheat, which yields similar to red spring wheat, Barth said.
Farmers usually receive a 35 cent per bushel premium over hard red spring wheat, he added.
“You’re usually looking at extra $12 to $18 per acre.”
