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Michigan FFA awards first Golden Scoop to Whitehall

A new partnership between the Michigan FFA Association and the Michigan State University Extension Product Center is helping to excite students about careers in the food industry.

Innovation Counselor Clarence Rudat tells Brownfield the Golden Scoop Competition challenges students to design an ice cream sundae while broadening their entrepreneurial and food science knowledge.

“Our part is to expose those students to the various industries they may not be aware of and the opportunities.”

“Coming out with something like an ice cream flavor or a sundae is something that’s a real-life experience that those students can actually engage in,” he shares.

Whitehall Agriscience teacher Nick Verbanic says the experience was extra engaging as a new program and instantly created a community of supporters.

“We’re more aligned toward food science and natural resources as a program, so that as an opportunity in itself was really cool,” he says. “It also really helped us market and broadcast our chapter out there. We were able to get the word out really easily, and it helped us just advertise what Whitehall FFA is all about.”

FFA members choose Whitehall’s Trailblazer sundae by popular vote as the first Michigan FFA Compass Cup Sundae Challenge winner.

It incorporated the MSU Dairy Store’s Beaumont Brownie Bliss topped with peanut butter drizzle, marshmallow cream, and whipped cream.

Verbanic says the process has been a full-circle experience since his journey in FFA began at the neighboring Montague FFA Chapter, where Rudat was his advisor.