Keeping with a longstanding tradition that goes hand-in-hand with National Beef Month every year, the Franklin County Cattlemen’s Association recently donated more than 400 pounds of beef to be used in both the city and county schools.

The beef was divided into ground beef, ground chuck, stew meat and round steak that students in the family and consumer science (FACS) departments at the different schools can use to make fajitas, hamburgers, stir fry and other beef dishes.

Cattlemen officials presented the beef on Oct. 15 to representatives from Phil Campbell High School, Red Bay High School, Russellville High School, Russellville Middle School and Belgreen High School, which are the schools in the county with family and consumer science departments.

The donation, which is worth nearly $1,600, is something the Cattlemen have been doing for more than 40 years, and Franklin County Cattlemen president Steven Smith said the group always looks forward to giving back to the schools.

“We are always glad to support our schools,” Smith said.

“The Cattlemen’s Association is very community-oriented, which is why I wanted to be part of the Association, and we are glad this beef donation will help support our students, our teachers and the family and consumer science programs.”

With the price of beef on the rise and with school budgets already stretched thin, the FACS teachers who received the beef said it was something that was much-needed for their classrooms.

“Our program is enhanced every year by this donation because it allows us to do more food labs than we would have been able to do otherwise, which really benefits the students,” said Cindy Coan, FACS teacher at Russellville High School.

“Meat is the most expensive thing in our budget, so to have a portion of that just donated to us is great.”

Joshlyn Garrison, who is in her first year teaching FACS at Phil Campbell High School, said she was grateful that a group like the Cattlemen would care enough to donate to the FACS programs.

“There are a lot of important topics we will be able to cover in our classes using this meat,” Garrison said.

“In our FACS classes we try to do easier recipes, so we will use the beef for things like spaghetti and stir fry, and the kids always enjoy making these foods.

“We’ll also use it to help them learn how to use meat thermometers and teach food safety, which is very important for them to learn.”

Sherry Hutcheson, FACS teacher at Red Bay High School, said the Cattlemen’s beef donation will help her implement necessary curriculums in her classroom.

“We are following the dietetics pathway, which includes classes on sports nutrition and the chemistry of food,” Hutcheson said.

“We will use this beef to talk about protein and how the body uses and breaks down protein, and also how foods like beef affect the performance of athletes.

“This is great real-world application and a way for the students to see just how important certain types of foods like beef are, and we appreciate the Cattlemen for making this possible.”

“We hope the donation helps the teachers financially but we also hope it teaches the students the importance of beef and how many different ways it can be used,” past state president Orland Britnell added.

“Beef is the number one product for protein, which is such an important part of a person’s diet. We are glad to provide this for our schools each year.”