Tasting Event for Bison

Objectives

• Offer an eating experience and the opportunity to try something new from a local farm.



• Increase awareness of the “Healthy Local Foods” message.



• Increase participation in the food service program.



• Create a positive food service experience.

Process

Local bison farmers provided an informational display including nutrition information, bison pictures, and a bison hide. This was positioned so that students would pass it on the way to the dirty tray return. Students could stop and look at it and ask questions on their way out of the lunchroom.

In the first year, Willmar Foodservice purchased a bison chuck roast and made pulled bison meat, using a recipe provided by the bison farmers. The Foodservice director and volunteers dished the pulled bison into 1 oz soufflé cups that were put on small trays and offered to students table by table in the lunchroom.

In the second year, bison hotdogs were planned on the lunch menu the day after students went to visit a local bison farm. Foodservice cooked the bison hotdogs and sliced them into bite-sized samples. Volunteers and the bison farmers took trays of samples to the students in the cafeteria, table by table. The bison display was set up for students to see as they left the lunchroom.

Questions for Farmers

Farmers know their farms and their production systems very well. It can be difficult for them to realize just how little students may know about farming in general, life on the farm, or a particular crop or livestock. Here are sample questions that students may have, to help farmers prepare themselves for speaking to a class or at a school cafeteria.

• Are bison dangerous?



• How are bison different from beef cattle? How are they similar?



• What is the bison life cycle (calf to adult animal)?



• How do you decide which calves to keep to grow into breeding animals?



• What do you do to control diseases and parasites in your animals?



• What do your bison eat?