NEW EDUCATION KIT REACHES TOMORROW`S CONSUMERS

DENVER (November 30, 1999) -- Beef producers are taking heed to the old adage, "children are our future." With the help of a lively new checkoff-funded video, complete with teen hosts, some of this country`s younger consumers are learning how beef can fit their 21st century lives.

The "Take a Cook on the Wild Side" junior and senior high school education video kit contains up-to-date information on beef, including food safety, nutrition, new heat and serve products and easy beef preparation.  It was sent last year to more than 23,000 family and consumer science teachers across the country. 

Beef producers invested checkoff dollars in the development of the kit and the mailing, which reached nearly 95 percent of the country`s public junior and senior high schools with family and consumer science programs.  It`s estimated that for every kit received, 200 kids will be exposed to the program within just two to three years.

"This program is an incredible investment for beef producers," says Trudy Carey, beef producer from Brandon, Fla., and chairman of the beef industry`s Education Subcommittee. Carey estimates the information in the kit will remain current for the next five years.

With five lesson plans, including sections on food safety, nutrition and fitness, planning and selection and preparation, the kit fits well into consumer science programs, particularly into the programs` meat unit. The kit focuses heavily on three of the beef industry`s top priorities - food safety, nutrition and easy product preparation, offering general meat safety tips and paying special attention to the proper handling and cooking of ground meat products. 

The key to the program is its video, Carey says, which uses a television variety show format to spark interest and deliver its messages.

"The entertaining format is something teenagers can relate to," says Carey.  Teen hosts take students on a fast-paced tour of a food festival, a family kitchen, a teen cooking party, an outdoor picnic, a food safety lab and a supermarket.  Joining them along their "tour" are an actual food safety expert, a registered dietitian and people in real-life situations.

The program has been a huge success, according to Carey.  "We typically send out evaluation forms with our programs and we use them as a tool to gauge how effective a program is," she says.  "The return on evaluations for Take a Cook on the Wild Side has been very high -- nearly double what we usually get."

Family and consumer science (formerly called home economics) teachers are a crucial target for the beef industry`s education department.  "They are a natural audience for us because they are a group of teachers whose job it is to teach about meat, and we are perceived as the experts," Carey says, adding that the beef industry has enjoyed many years of strong relationships with these educators.  In addition, with the cooking skills of today`s consumers at an all-time low, teachers are committed to exposing their students to basic cooking skills.

While students learn step-by-step directions for six basic beef cookery methods (roasting, broiling, pan-broiling, stirfrying, braising and cooking in liquid), Take a Cook On the Wild Side is revolutionary in that it is the first beef education kit to introduce the concept of new heat-and-eat products.  

For example, it features a woman preparing a chuck roast for her family. The woman stresses the good value of the cut and points out that it`s easy to microwave a precooked pot roast from the supermarket in about 10 minutes. 

"The video combines the consumer`s need for convenience with the beef industry`s need to use underutilized cuts," says Carey.  The kit also carries messages from the industry`s new integrated marketing and communications strategy that focuses on convenience and nutrition.

"Take a Cook on the Wild Side" was developed after a successful 10-year-run of another education kit called "Cooking Today`s Beef."  "Teachers began requesting more information on food safety and we decided it was a perfect time to update," says Carey, explaining that the beef industry`s education staff worked closely with the industry`s Culinary Center on the project.

A long and successful future is being predicted for the new kit, which in addition to being sent to schools has been exhibited at several education conventions, including the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences last summer in Seattle.

"We are confident that this video is reaching our future consumer base and generating excitement about beef for this young audience," Carey says.

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Advertising programs are funded by the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board (Beef Board).  This 111-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

Under a contract with the Beef Board, this beef checkoff-funded effort is conducted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a trade association of America’s cattle ranchers and farmers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.  NCBA is producer-directed but consumer-focused, with offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C.