Source: Meating Place
The Delmarva Chicken Association (DCA) has launched a year-long educational campaign, “Growing For 100 Years,” to celebrate the meat chicken industry, which began a century ago in Ocean View, Del.
Cecile Steele of Sussex County, Del., pioneered the industry in 1923 when she accidentally received a shipment of 500 chickens, the DCA said in a release announcing the campaign. The errant package prompted her and her husband to build the first broiler chicken farm in the region. Within three years, they had coops for 10,000 chickens and had kicked off an entire economic sector dedicated to raising chickens not for eggs, but to eat.
Now more than 1,300 family farmers raise chickens in the Delmarva region, more than 18,000 chicken company employees work and live there.
“This campaign is about paying tribute to the farmers, chicken companies, and allied businesses advancing the industry, and looking forward to the bright future ahead for the chicken community,” said DCA Executive Director Holly Porter.
To kick off the campaign, DCA and presenting sponsor Perdue Farms hosted a launch event at in Dover, Del., over the weekend. Also, Delaware’s congressional delegation of U.S. Senators Tom Carper, Chris Coons and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester honored the anniversary in a Congressional Record Statement.
The campaign will continue through the calendar year, with TV programming, digital platforms, publications, billboards and community events planned in Maryland and Delaware.
“The industry may have started with an accidental delivery, but we can look back on it now as an amazing economic opportunity for Delmarva and the thousands of families it supports,” said Sen. Carper.
