A state grant is helping Minnesota schools teach meat processing to students. Applications are now open for the MEAT grant, which stands for Meat Education and Training. In the first round of grants, $350,000 was dispersed across nine districts to establish or enhance meat cutting and butchery training.

One of those districts was West Central Schools in Grant County. The district was granted $35,000 to support the purchase of a meat processing mobile trailer and provide up to 100 hours of hands-on training for one agriculture instructor at a local butcher shop.

Eric Sawatzke is the high school agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at West Central Schools. He also helped create the state grant. He joined Minnesota Now to talk about teaching meat processing in schools.