AMES, Iowa — 120 Family and Consumer Science (FCS) teachers visited the Beef for Strength exhibit during the 2019 Iowa Family and Consumer Science Educators Conference held in Ames, Iowa on August 6, 2019. Teachers received a beef toolkit with beef recipes, beef posters and educational resources for classroom beef lessons. Attendees prepared a beef jerky trail mix as a portable protein snack idea for students.
The Iowa Beef Industry Council (IBIC) sponsored a sports nutrition dietitian speaker to present to interested teachers during a break-out session. The sports dietitian shared the importance of protein, including beef and beef recipes, to fuel strength, sports performance and recovery.
“It’s a great opportunity to provide new science-based beef nutrition and culinary resources to FCS teachers to improve their understanding of beef’s role in a healthful diet,” stated Rochelle Gilman, RD, Director of Nutrition and Health for IBIC.
IBIC offers grants for Family and Consumer Science teachers, which allows teachers to purchase beef to use in cooking lessons focusing on beef cuts, cooking and nutrition. Over $13,000 was awarded to Family and Consumer Science programs during the 2018-19 school year to more than 6,300 middle and high school students who benefited from the Beef Grant Program. Many teachers commented that without the beef grants, they would be unable to teach a specific beef cooking unit with their students.
One teacher commented regarding the beef grant, “Without Iowa Beef Industry Council’s generous grant, I would not have been able to teach a specific unit on cooking with beef in my foods classes, as it is not in the budget. The students were surprised that they could make a beef dish that was so yummy, easy, and yet made with something other than ground beef.”
To learn more, visit iabeef.org.
— Iowa Beef Industry Council
For more news from Iowa, click here.