The local Sweet Potato Council heard a marketing plan from a couple of Mississipi students and named new council members at a meeting of the group Friday night at the Multi-Purpose Building in Pittsboro.
Mississippi State University MBA team members Simon Xia and Sarah Jensen presented their winning plan at the meeting.
The students won a competition between classmates in a semester long assignment to help Calhoun sweet potato farmers increase sales, compete better with North Carolina and make Mississippi Sweet Potatoes a more recognizable brand.
MSU students Sarah Jensen and Simon Xia were part of a five-member team who spent last semester on the project.
Their project was a recommendation to the Council to join “Eat Brighter!,” a government program that allows industries, businesses and communities to include Sesame Street character images in their marketing plan royalty free and with a minimal cost to join the program.
Jensen said the program was available for two more years and estimated the cost to the council to be around $1,000.
She said that suppliers participating in the program had increased sales 5.3% in the first year.
The students showed example photos from a supermarket with Sesame Street characters and the Eat Brighter! logo on one side and Mississippi Sweet Potatoes on the other.
After the presentation, Dr. Stephen Meyers gave a report on the past year, emphasizing that sweet potatoes had broken into the top ten Mississippi commodity values this year.
He showed photos of various meetings and classes held through the year, and included the Mississippi Sweet Potato innovation challenge which included cattle feed and a faux leather made from sweet potatoes.
New council members elected were Mike Langley, Hugh Pettit and Wade Fleming.