John Tyson
Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale on Tuesday donated $1.3 million to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
The UA will use the money to update the division’s Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fayetteville.
The grant came as the division marked the 20th anniversary of its Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, housed in a building named for Tyson Foods founder John Tyson.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson was the keynote speaker at the event.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity to innovate our poultry research facilities in Fayetteville, and we are extremely thankful to Tyson Foods for its continued commitment to poultry research and the future of agriculture in Arkansas,” said Mark Cochran, the UA System’s vice president for agriculture. “We are most excited about the ways this grant will allow our research facilities to address the relevant issues facing the poultry industry and facilitate our capacity to engage more with the public, including children and young researchers who will be the future of agricultural research in our state.”
The grant includes $300,000 to renovate the division’s Pilot Processing Plant, adding stadium seating and a pilot test kitchen for research. Another $200,000 will go to building an education center where young students can learn about Arkansas’ history of poultry production and research.
“The great Arkansas poultry pioneers envisioned a place where students can learn from the best and learn how to be the best, in what is now one of the largest teaching and research facility on this campus,” Tyson Foods Chairman John Tyson said.
“The poultry science program at the University of Arkansas wouldn’t be what it is today without the commitment of the University of Arkansas, the faculty who’ve spent countless hours introducing new opportunities and challenges for their students, and the myriad of folks in the industry and community,” he said. “It’s an outstanding facility that’s helped shape leaders in the poultry industry and will continue to do so for years to come.”
The UA said the Tyson Foods donation is a matching gift with a challenge to the poultry industry to match the initial gift. Tyson Foods intends the final total gift, once the challenge is fully accepted, to be $2.6 million.
The UA said George’s Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc., two other Arkansas poultry companies, each contributed $100,000 to the research facility.
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