Anyone who is a parent of school-age children knows that tuition is only part of the cost of education. Tuition doesn’t cover field trips, uniforms, instruments and, of course, school fundraisers. At least once or twice a year, children come home from school with an order form and a quota for products they have to sell. It could be wrapping paper, popcorn, candy bars or raffle tickets, but the result is the same: families and friends have to shell out money for overpriced stuff they don’t need.
Country Meats and the schools that have partnered with them offer an alternative: snack sticks. More affordable than catalog junk and healthier than cookies and candy, snack sticks make for an ideal fundraising tool. The schools and school groups that have partnered with the Ocala, Fla.-based processor have raised more than $24 million in profits since the company entered the snack stick market almost 30 years ago.