2004 News Archive
"Operation BEEF UP Our Troops" Kicks Off With Success
Editors Note: A press kit featuring additional information, various print ads and USO public service announcements is available at www.cobeef.com. Photos of troops with care packages will be available on December 15, 2004.
“Operation BEEF UP Our Troops”, a program to raise money to purchase beef jerky for USO care packages, has kicked off with a successful start. In just under three weeks, more than $30,000 has been raised to buy beef jerky for American troops, with more dollars rolling in from various individuals as well as a cross section of farm, ranch and rural groups across the country.
Examples include the Indiana Jr. Beef Cattle Association, which started a fundraising drive at the Hoosier Beef Congress and raised more than $2,000 for the purchase of beef jerky. This association is sending out a challenge to other junior cattle organizations to do the same. The Tri-State G&T Association, a provider of electricity to 44 rural electric cooperatives in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico, also pledged funds to the project. Finally, the American Farm Bureau Federation is conducting a fund-raising campaign with its membership. From cattlemen and women and county affiliates to large state and national organizations, rural America is making a commitment to support our troops.
Beef jerky funded through the program will feature a label with the message, “Donated by America’s farming and ranching families. We thank you for your service to our country. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”
Individual producers and others may phone in donations through the USO’s customer service at (800) 876-7469. Callers need to specify that their donations are for “Operation BEEF UP Our Troops.” Donations also can be made by logging onto the USO web site at www.uso.org. In addition, donations can be mailed, noting “beef jerky” in the check memo, to:
“BEEF UP Our Troops”
Operation USO Care Package
PO Box 8069
Topeka, KS 66608.
For more information on “Operation BEEF UP Our Troops” or to download an easy form for mail-in donations, go to www.cobeef.com. For additional information on the USO Care Package program, go to www.usocares.org.
About the USO
The USO is chartered by Congress as a nonprofit charitable corporation and is not a part of the United States Government. The mission of the USO is to provide morale, welfare and recreation-type services to uniformed military personnel. The USO currently operates 124 centers around the world, including five mobile canteens, with 70 located in the continental United States, three in the Caribbean and 46 overseas.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval. The checkoff assessment became mandatory when the program was approved by 79 percent of producers in a 1988 national referendum vote. Checkoff revenues may be used for promotion, education and research programs to improve the marketing climate for beef.
Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the NCBA is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.