October is National Beef Month and members of the Franklin County Cattlemen’s Association have been busy giving back to the community and working with students across the area to help them understand the importance of beef.

On Thursday, Orland Britnell visited first graders at West Elementary in Russellville and read “Cows in the Kitchen,” a fun book about farming, as part of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association’s “Read Across Alabama” initiative.

“We have been to every elementary school in the county to read to the students,” Britnell said. “We just want to interact with the children and let them know why beef is important, where beef comes from and that it’s important to support the family farms we have across the state of Alabama.”

After Britnell read to all the first graders, he donated the book to the school’s library, which is what each cattleman who has read to students in each of the schools did also.

“We want these kids to understand that hamburgers don’t just come from a restaurant,” he said. “They come from farms where children just like them live and work and cattle farming is important to our livelihood.”

Members of the Franklin County Cattlemen’s Association were also on hand Friday to distribute beef to the county and city schools to be used in their family and consumer science classes.

The men distributed 100 pounds of ground beef and 25 pounds of stir fry to representatives from Phil Campbell High School, Red Bay High School, Russellville High School and Russellville Middle School, which are the schools in the county with family and consumer science departments.

“This is wonderful,” said Phil Campbell High School family and consumer sciences teacher Amy Gunderman.

“We really appreciate the cattlemen doing this for us each year.”

“With things as tight as they are everywhere, it means a lot to our schools and our students that the cattlemen do this each year,” Franklin County schools superintendent Gary Williams said.