Midwest Food Processors Award $10,000 in Scholarships
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The Midwest Food Processors Association (MWFPA) has awarded ten $1,000 scholarships to the children of association members for their post-secondary education.
The awards are the first under the new Midwest Food Processors Association Scholarship program which was established by the association’s board of directors. The scholarship is available to students whose parents work for association member companies and plan to attend, or are attending, a post-secondary institution of higher education. There are no restrictions on what field of study or the institution they wish to attend. For the employees of MWFPA member companies, the new scholarship can provide significant help in paying for their child’s education.
“This is our way of promoting continuing education and hopefully get more people into the hightech world of food processing in addition to providing a benefit to our members,” said MWFPA President Nick George.
“The food industry is global and includes the fields of food safety, R&D, financial services, education, food processing, agriculture, transportation and logistics, manufacturing and marketing to name a few. While the rules of the new scholarship program do not require the recipient to be studying in a food industry-related field, we hope they will consider bringing their skills to this area.
Food processing is a good employment option for students,” George continued.
MWFPA has two additional scholarship programs. The Kenneth G. Weckel Scholarship, named for a University of Wisconsin food science professor who contributed greatly to the advancement of vegetable and fruit processing through his research and teaching. The other scholarship is named for Carleton A. Friday whose family founded the Friday Canning Company of New Richmond, Wisconsin. Both scholarships offer up to three $1,500 scholarships to deserving undergraduate students who are majoring in agriculture or food science within the University of Wisconsin system (currently Madison, Platteville and River Falls).
George welcomes the attention the scholarship programs bring to the food processing industry. MWFPA is made up of food processors and their vendors in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In his travels throughout the Midwest, he is surprised to learn how little people know about the food processing industry.
“Most people have very little information about the food processing industry,” he says. “They go to the grocery store and pick up their food and don’t realize that there is a very large and intricate industry behind it.”
“It’s among the top manufacturing industries in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin and it continues to grow.” George added.