New York Beef Checkoff Promotes Top Cut Beef Contest

Rome, NY (November 2022)— Offering school-age children a hands-on learning opportunity to participate in the pasture-to-plate experience is the aim of the NY Beef Checkoff (NYBC) and New York Agriculture in the Classroom (NYAITC) continued partnership. The Top Cut Beef Contest allows students to participate in the development, marketing, and serving of a nutritious beef dish to their peers. The entire experience offers an opportunity for students to engage while learning new skills and exploring the beef lifecycle. This year’s theme is “Cafeteria Takeover” students worked as a group to develop a marketing and nutrition plan for a beef-centric product or recipe that could be served in their school cafeteria. Students were encouraged to work with their school’s food service team in this cross-curricular challenge. The goal was for students to learn the process of procuring, preparing, and providing balanced school lunches to students in school that could also be replicated at home.   

 Chef Alex from National Cattlemen's Beef Association, contractor to the Beef Checkoff, was busy cooking up beef sliders with us and New York Agriculture in the Classroom recently. During this virtual cooking experience, students learned the step-by-step cooking process and recipe development tips from a pro. Classes were able to ask questions during the interactive experience. Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0mfJNa28r8 to watch and cook along at home! School food service beef recipes can be found by visiting https://www.nybeef.org/education/school-foodservice/recipes-for-lunch-programs  

There is still time for interested classes to participate in this year's competition. To find out more and enter the Top Cuts competition visit https://newyork.agclassroom.org/programs/topcut/ Stay tuned in December to see who this year's winners are and the beef recipes that were created by students this year during the contest.   

To learn more about New York Beef Council and Beef Checkoff-funded activities happening in New York visit https://www.nybeef.org/