Partnering to Prepare the Next Generation of Industry Leaders

Written by: Guests   |   November 11, 2024

Education, scholarship

By: Gary Huddleston, director of feed manufacturing and regulatory affairs at AFIA, and Mike Schuster, vice president of sales at Laidig Systems, Inc. and former IFEEDER Board Chair

The Equipment Manufacturers Committee (EMC) Scholarship Fund began as an idea in the early 1950s at a Grain Equipment Machinery Manufacturers Association meeting. Recognizing the importance of giving back, the association started a scholarship fund and awarded one small, annual scholarship to a Kansas State University undergraduate student pursuing a career in the animal feed industry. This idea provided the spark for this program, igniting continued ideas for growing the fund over the years.  

In 1987, the Grain Equipment Machinery Manufacturers Association joined the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) as AFIA’s EMC, bringing with it approximately $30,000 into the scholarship fund. Over the next 20 years, the fund’s balance declined as it continued supporting one annual scholarship. In 2005, the AFIA Equipment Manufacturers Conference held a fundraiser golf tournament, which raised $10,000 and brought renewed energy to the scholarship fund. 

In 2007, upon his retirement from Hayes & Stolz, Dale Presnell, a long-time EMC member, challenged the committee to invest more energy into expanding the scholarship fund. Responding to this call, the committee began to implement fundraising efforts during the annual Equipment Manufacturers Conference, which included selling mulligans and organizing a putting contest at the conference’s golf tournament and hosting a raffle at the networking dinner.  

These efforts began to move the fund in a positive direction, but the committee set its sights higher.  

In 2013, as the fund was growing, the committee voted to add two additional scholarships – one to North Carolina State University and the other to the Northern Crops Institute at North Dakota State University. Additionally, the committee voted to partner with the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) to administer the fund and provide a fourth scholarship at California State Polytechnic University. In one year, the scholarship program expanded from one scholarship to four.  

Next, after discussions with AFIA senior leadership, the EMC secured a profit-sharing arrangement from the annual conference, in return for which the committee would help plan, promote and secure sponsorships. With fundraising activities flourishing, the committee and IFEEDER continued to expand the program with scholarships to Iowa State University to Auburn University, raising the total to six annual awards. In 2020, with the assistance of Watt Publishing at their annual International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) reception, the committee also added another annual raffle as a fundraiser.  

Through the growth of fundraising efforts and in collaboration with IFEEDER (who funds two of the six scholarships), the fund balance has remained strong, prompting the committee to add a seventh scholarship in 2022 at West Virginia University in honor of former AFIA President and CEO Joel G. Newman, WVU alumni.  

Over time, EMC and IFEEDER have increased all the scholarship awards to $5,000 each, now awarding a total of $35,000 annually to students at seven universities. 

Recently, AFIA’s Production Compliance Committee (PCC) joined the efforts to support the EMC Scholarship Fund. In 2024, the PCC, which manages the annual Feed Facility of the Year program, decided to increase the participation fee of the program and donate the resulting profit to the EMC Scholarship Fund. This resulted in an additional $14,000 contribution to the fund. This influx of new fundraising will undoubtedly enable even greater support for future industry leaders.  

The EMC Scholarship Fund has a rich history of passionate, feed industry professionals working hard to give back to the industry. When we examine the storied history of this scholarship program, we see a great example of how a passionate EMC led to a partnership that included AFIA leadership, IFEEDER and the PCC to expand a program that provides a long-lasting benefit to the industry we all love.