The North Carolina State Fair is a ten-day annual event running October 17th-27th and is located in Raleigh. The fair brings people from all over North Carolina to Raleigh, and provides many opportunities for our members to get involved in service to agriculture. This year, over 1 million people visited the fair. Our main fundraising opportunity during the fair is through the North Carolina Pork Council. Throughout the week, at least 8 brothers a day voluteered their time working five hour shifts. We dedicated over 100 hours as a fraternity to the Pork Chop Shop. During that time, brothers took food orders, prepared plates, operated cash registers, washed dishes, and helped keep the dining area clean. North Carolina is second in leading swine production in the United States and theNorth Carolina Pork Council is a long-time industry friend of Alpha Zeta. The Pork Chop Shop is a great way for our chapter to promote and serve the swine industry in North Carolina. The event was also a great way to meet people who are involved in all aspects of agriculture, both customers as well as other friends of the Pork Council people with whom we worked. This year, there were over 10,000 customers come through the Pork Chop Shop. After all the profits were totaled by the Pork Council, Alpha Zeta was given a monetary donation for our services.
Most brothers enjoyed the social aspect of the fair after volunteering with Pork Chop Shop. They rode rides, watched fireworks and tasted various fried foods. Unfortunately this was our last year serving food with the Pork Council. Alpha Zeta will be providing service to the Pork Council during the fair or another event during the year.
The fair is organized and operated by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. We enjoyed meeting and talking with NC Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Troxler, about what work goes into planning the fair as he came through the line at Pork Chop Shop. We also served barbeque to a local television news anchor. This year we had a "bumper crop of fun” at the State Fair, and cannot wait for next year