- A farm-to-table class is offered at Maysville High School in Maysville
- Students learned to hunt, butcher animals, process the meat and prepare it for cooking
- Teachers said the courses are important as Americans struggle with rising grocery bills
Students at a Missouri high school begin their school day with a morning hunt, then proceed to butcher and cook animal carcasses.
At Maysville High School in Maysville, Missouri, starting in 2022, family and consumer science teacher Amy Kanak and agriculture teacher Brandi Ellis are offering farm-to-table.
Students learn to hunt, dissect and identify animal organs, process harvested meat and prepare it for cooking as part of programs offered by the Missouri Future Farmers of America (FFA).
“It forces them out of their comfort zone a little bit,” Ellis told the New York Times, adding that the hours are important as Americans struggle with rising grocery bills.
The average American household spends $1,080 per month at the grocery store, and in the golden state of California, the average household spends $297.72 per week.
As two years of runaway inflation take a toll on grocery budgets, home food spending has risen 2.6 percent over the past 12 months, according to HelpAdvisor’s analysis of data from the U.S. Household Pulse Survey.
If students know how to hunt and process a deer that yields 55 to 70 pounds of processed meat, or prepare a chicken that averages 70 percent of its original weight of meat and skin, they may have a much more affordable option.
Students at Maysville High School in Maysville, an hour’s drive north of Kansas City, were already raising cattle, learning to hunt and helping their parents on their farms before enrolling in agriculture classes.
Garrett Bray, a 2022 graduate, learned to hunt from his father and has been hunting since he was young.
Brendan Barton, a junior at the time, owned 17 breeding ewes, ten market lambs, two cows, two heifers, two calves and three breeding pigs, the school shared on Facebook.
In the new farm-to-table class, many students picked up a knife and cut for the first time as an important part of the process of understanding where their food comes from.
In different classes, students were tasked with identifying animal organs, handling raw meat and bringing it to the table.
Sometimes they learned safe hunting tips and found themselves heading out on early morning hunting trips before preparing the field and dividing the crop.
They also identified and felt different parts of the reproductive tract, heart, lungs and other organs collected from animals.
One specific class was dedicated to pork, as students cut one side of the pork into pieces for retail, labeled them, and prepared them for cooking.
In photos shared on the school’s social media account, Sophia Redman, a freshman in the class of 2022, can be seen holding a knife and making the initial cut of a deer.
Local residents and businesses also participate in the program, with wholesalers donating their meat and farmers giving away their livestock.
Last December, a neighbor called the Ellises and asked to donate their seven “overly aggressive” roosters to the program.
Later, the students learned to gut, remove and remove the organs and legs from the chickens before marinating them and placing them in the oven.
The school shared photos of children enjoying their meals, including roast chicken breasts and thigh deep-dishes.
Hyatt Processing, a local meat processing facility and wholesaler, donated pork for the school’s agricultural science classes.
Photos capture a dozen children breaking out the pork rack and cutting meat before moving to the kitchen table and marinating it for a pork tenderloin.
Many students enrolled in Maysville High School’s agriculture class went on to work part-time at local butcher shops, meat wholesalers and farms.
Kloie Wade, a sophomore in 2021, went to work at Hyatt Processing for her experience in controlled agriculture, a required component of FFA at program.
Inside the facility building, where multiple giant beef carcasses were hung, the young girl can be seen tenderizing the meat and wrapping the ground beef in an apron.
“She has already learned how to wrap, tenderize, wrap a burger, clean the area and cut meat! Her boss is impressed with her willingness to work and learn new skills,” the school said in a post.
