Tyson and Junior Achievement Promote Hispanic Initiative; Program Encourages Hispanic Students to Stay in School

SPRINGDALE, Ark., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tyson Foods and Junior Achievement (JA) of Northwest Arkansas have partnered to launch an educational outreach to Hispanic youth and their parents, company and JA officials announced today.

Tyson has donated $10,000 in seed money to help JA begin the "Economics for Success -- Hispanic Initiative." The money will be used to pay for special take-home learning kits for Hispanic students taking JA's "Economics for Success" course, which is typically part of career orientation classes. The kits include a video, board game and other information in Spanish designed to help the students and their families learn about the importance of staying in school and the economic benefits of an education.

"We support this effort because it will make a positive difference in lives of many young people in northwest Arkansas," said John Tyson, chairman and chief executive officer of Tyson Foods. "I encourage other business leaders to join us in support of this important educational project by matching or exceeding our donation."

The new JA program is focused on Hispanics, because they currently represent a large portion of area students who do not complete high school.

"By involving the families, we're hopeful this project will help reduce the number of Hispanic students dropping out of our public schools by showing them of the value of education," said Ana Hart, manager of Multi-Cultural Community Relations for Tyson Foods.

The learning kits will be made available beginning this fall during career orientation classes offered to eighth graders at two junior highs in Fayetteville and one in Springdale. They will also be offered to all ninth grade students in Rogers, through the district's new "Key Stone" classes. The program will be offered to Bentonville, as well as additional Springdale junior high schools, in 2006.

JA's strategic plan calls for expanding the Hispanic Initiative to all career orientation classes in Benton and Washington Counties by the conclusion of the 2007 academic year.

"This is an aggressive goal, but we're confident that Junior Achievement will be able to reach it with the help of corporate partners like Tyson," according to Rigo Gomez, board member for JA of Northwest Arkansas. "We're very grateful for the financial support provided by Tyson and for the many Tyson volunteers who teach a unit in one of our regional classrooms."

"Our volunteers benefit from the program as much, if not more than the students," said Butch Wilson, vice president of International for Tyson Foods who serves on the JA of Northwest Arkansas Board of Directors. "It's an excellent community service opportunity for our people. It gives them an opportunity to help make a difference in the lives of these young students today who are the community citizens and business workforce of tomorrow. The program also helps students learn first-hand about our nation's free enterprise system as they cover such topics as economics, personal finance, personal interest, career choices, and most importantly, the economics of staying in school."

Junior Achievement is a non-profit organization that places volunteers from the regional business community into area classrooms to help educate and inspire students to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives.

Tyson Foods, Inc., founded in 1935 with headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas, is the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork and the second-largest food company in the Fortune 500. The company produces a wide variety of protein-based and prepared food products, which are marketed under the "Powered by Tyson(TM)" strategy. Tyson is the recognized market leader in the retail and foodservice markets it serves, providing products and service to customers throughout the United States and more than 80 countries. Tyson has approximately 114,000 Team Members employed at more than 300 facilities and offices in the United States and around the world.