SALEM, Ohio — Nothing takes one back to the fair more than the familiar smell of fair food: corn dogs cooking on the grill, funnel cakes frying in oil and the buttery smell of kettle corn wafting through the hot and humid summer air.
Clay Winland does it all: from selling tenderloins and steak burgers to French fries and kettle corn. But beyond the fair food and bright neon lights is a company set on helping children interested in agriculture.
Winland, a former FFA kid himself, created Winland’s Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn to help raise money for FFA. Today, students across Ohio are selling kettle corn in schools to support their local FFA chapters.
“My favorite part of the whole entire thing is delivering (kettle corn) to see the different programs around. We have some fantastic ag programs in the state, and just to be able to see, that’s probably my favorite part,” Winland said. “I really enjoy seeing the programs get excited to make money.”
The beginning
Winland, a former agriculture teacher at Philo Junior High School and Philo High School, first began selling food at fairs in 2017 with his super tenderloins and super steak trailer. From there, Winland Catering and Concessions expanded quickly when he purchased three more trailers for a French fry, corn dog and kettle corn truck.
He quit his teaching job in 2019 to pursue his business full-time, but then COVID-19 hit in March 2020.
“The timing couldn’t have been worse,” Winland said. “We had put out quite a bit of money to get going and then building a house as well, and then boom. It was total devastation that year.”
Many fairs and events that Winland catered to were canceled and business was suddenly non-existent. What seemed like a tragedy, however, would be a blessing in disguise. The sudden setback helped Winland and his wife, Julie, re-evaluate how to prepare for unexpected circumstances like the pandemic.
He also started looking into changing a system that he felt didn’t support FFA students enough. Winland was a chapter president of West Muskingum FFA in high school and served as an FFA advisor at Philo High School. His wife was a member of Tri-Valley FFA, and both of them were in 4-H as kids.
“When I was teaching ag, I realized a lot of the corporate fundraising companies don’t give the kids back much money,” Winland said.
“A lot of schools pump all their money into sports and athletics instead of programs. And I’m like: how can we help some of the programs that we enjoyed so much as kids?”
Winland had the idea to start a fundraiser through his kettle corn business, where 40% of the proceeds go back to local FFA chapters. To do this, he went to the Ohio FFA Foundation for permission and pitched his fundraiser to several local FFA chapters.
Today, Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn Company is sold as an FFA fundraiser in schools across several Ohio counties.
Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn Company
Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn Company sells to local school programs — FFA, 4-H and non-affiliated school programs. Winland gives forms to the students who have two to three weeks to take orders before submitting the forms back. He then delivers the 20-inch bags to schools within three days of popping the corn.
Each bag of popcorn is popped, bagged and delivered by Winland and his family, with help from family and friends. The bags are $10, and students get $4 back, 40% of the proceeds.
Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn sells to schools in Carroll, Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Noble, Muskingum Perry, Licking, Morgan, Clark, Paulding, Fulton, Seneca, Defiance, Holmes, Wayne, Ross and Pickaway counties.
Schools have the potential to raise a lot of money. “We’ve had 4-H (groups) as small as 10 or 12 kids make $1,500,” Winland said. One 4-H girl from Utica, Ohio, sold 137 bags, raising $548 for her 4-H group in spring 2025.
Winland adds the popcorn lasts a while and freezes well, up to six months. The company sells six different flavors of popcorn: cinnamon apple, cinnamon roll, original kettle corn, caramel apple, movie theater butter (sugar-free) and caramel kettle corn. He will occasionally rotate flavors.
Winland can also be found with his food trucks — Crazy Kernel Kettle Corn Company included — at fairs across Ohio, including the Perry County Fair, Muskingum County Fair, Noble County Fair, Guernsey County Fair and the Circleville Pumpkin Festival. He caters to other events, like company outings, and festivals in Ohio, as well.
In the coming year, Winland hopes to expand to more counties and get more school programs involved in the fundraiser, because, despite the busy fair schedule, FFA is where his heart is.
“There’s not that many groups targeting ag programs like we are, but we’re just big fans. 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,” Winland said. “It caters to all kinds of different kids.”
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
