For more than a half-century, North Forest ISD has offered its students an opportunity to learn a skill-set that many feel is becoming a lost art.
With more than 1,000 FFA programs in the state of Texas, North Forest ISD is just one of 28 to offer a meat processing class.
FFA Advisor Bill Dodd said that they have taught students how to process and pack meat for 58 years.
Dodd said that the class, which is only offered to juniors and seniors, teaches students how to process beef, chicken, rabbits, hogs and turkeys — the animals they would most likely come in contact with in a butcher shop or grocery store.
“They learn not only how to cut and wrap the meat,” Dodd said, “but also animal structure, where the cuts are located and how they are processed in the industry.”
And the lessons are not all academic. The students also get hands-on experience.
In an area known as the “Meat Slab” 14 students dressed in white coats use the same knives, saws and wrapping equipment that is found in meat markets.
“We teach our students what is used in the industry so that when they leave [North Forest] they would have the skills to walk into any meat market or grocery store to be able to work,” Dodd said.
The class also teaches students how to cut meat safely. Dodd was proud to note that in all of his years at North Forest, he has never had a student have a serious accident.
Marquez Ivory and Jahmar Sampson are taking the class this year. Ivory said that his family likes to hunt and he thought i would be good to learn how to process the meat. Sampson said that since he has taken the class he has considered going into the field after high school. Even if he does not, he said the skills give him a good backup plan.
Since the facility is not licensed for retail they are unable to sell their products. They do, however, charge a nominal fee to cover expenses.
“Our customers keep it [the meat] for home use, some donate it back to the FFA, and others donate it to food charities such as HAM [Humble-Area Ministries],” he said.
The processing class will soon be busy. On April 14 and 15 the North Forest FFA will hold their annual livestock show and auction. Dodd said that anyone who purchases an animal can have it processed by the students.