Wheat Foods Council (WFC) members and supporters gathered at its Summer Meeting in Charleston, SC to celebrate the significant milestone of the 50^th anniversary of the organization.

In the early 1970s, wheat foods were under attack for containing a high portion of carbohydrates which many people believed made foods fattening. In May 1972, the wheat commissions from Kansas, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, and Nebraska met to create a coordinated response, resulting in the establishment of the Wheat Foods Council. Soon other state wheat commissions along with milling, baking, and other allied industry companies joined WFC to increase its resources and expand its important efforts. Today, WFC remains an organization whose membership encompasses the entire wheat foods value chain.

At our meeting in Charleston new officers were seated for WFC’s 2022/2023 fiscal year: Kent Juliot, Ardent Mills, chair; Ron Suppes, Kansas Wheat Commission, vice chair; Mark Hotze, Corbion, treasurer/secretary and Darby Campsey, Texas Wheat Producers, immediate past chair. The board also reviewed the programs WFC conducted during the fiscal year. Included among them were:

• To continue educating Personal Trainers in April 2020 when COVID shutdown in-person activities and events, WFC began creating short educational videos and sharing them through social media. By June 2022, these videos had achieved over 18 million views by personal trainers. Personal trainers’ advice reaches and influences more than 30 million consumers each week; educating them about the nutritional importance of wheat foods is one of WFC’s core strategies.
• WFC conducted a Chef Workshop focused on the plant-forward food trend at the Culinary Institute of America in April 2022, giving menu development chefs a hands-on demonstration of how wheat foods are a key menu component to meeting this food trend which the chefs identified as the most important trend their businesses are dealing with.
• Also, in conjunction with the chef workshop, WFC put on the Future of Food Forum with expert speakers addressing plant-forward foods, sustainability, managing supply chains and innovation and collaboration. These were the topics menu development chefs identified as critical to the future of their companies. The speakers’ presentations were excellent and the panel discussion and questions went for an additional 90 minutes. The audience at the event found it highly useful, rating the Forum 9.47 out of 10 on their event surveys.

The WFC Board also approved program plans and budgets for the 2022/2023 fiscal year at its meeting. The program plans feature holding another Chef Workshop at the Culinary Institute of America and educating Personal Trainers through various methods including continuing the video campaign, providing expert speakers and exhibiting at select Personal Trainer conferences.

Future meeting dates for the WFC include:

• 2023 WFC Annual Meeting: January 17–20, 2023, Austin, TX
• 2023 WFC Summer Meeting: June 12–16, 2023, Denver, CO

WFC’s leadership invites everyone in the industry to join the organization and assist in increasing demand for wheat foods. To learn more about WFC and its strategies, visit its website.