Where’s the beef?

RANDOLPH — Hundreds of boxes of fruit were sold again this year by the Randolph FFA chapter.

But those buyers also had the opportunity to browse and select Nebraska-made coffee and beef sticks as well.

“We wanted to give some more variety and also support local Nebraska small businesses,” said FFA Adviser Craig Flaming.

Products from Regier Coffee Roasters based in Madrid, Neb. As well as eight different varieties of beef sticks from locally-owned Loup River Beef were part of this year’s sale.

Loup River Beef is owned by Greg and Malinda Villwok, Randolph, and their two children, Cadein and Addison, are heavily involved in the business. Both happen to be Randolph FFA alumni and it was their idea to include Loup River beef sticks as part of FFA sales, Greg said.

“It helps the chapter and it is a benefit to us,” he said. “Our brand that we’ve established is pretty new and the idea was to get some exposure by working with the FFA chapter.”

He said the driving factor to starting the Loup River Beef brand was to provide a high-quality steak in the marketplace and the beef sticks were just an added product.

“It’s something we stumbled onto,” Greg said. “The beef sticks were not our intention. Our intention was to sell ribeyes and we’re doing that but the beef sticks have become super popular.”

Fruit remains the focal point of the sale with nearly 500 boxes of fruit sold as part of the fundraiser with Jessa Backer once again top saleswoman and Eva Bermel runner-up. The FFA chapter conducts the fundraiser each year with the proceeds offsetting conference travel expenses and fees, Flaming said.

Adding local products was worthwhile and the chapter will probably consider local products again for next year’s sale, he said.

Greg Villwok was also pleased with the response and is open to working with more FFA chapters on upcoming fundraisers.