Country Meats: A fundraiser you can sink your teeth into

Scouts can expect a meaty profit when they sell Country Meats’ smoked snacks. Units earn $113 per case sold — that’s a 50% profit.

Country Meats, a family-run business since 1978, offers 12-plus flavors of smoked snacks that Scouts can sell for $1.50 each. A case comes with 144 sticks (plus 10 free sticks for shipping) with six flavors to a case. You can try out a few of their flavors by requesting a free sample or calling 800-277-8989.

The newest flavor, Pickle Stick, joins a lineup of favorites, including Sweet BBQ, Original Smoked Hickory and Sweet Annie Brown. The seasonal stick’s crisp dill flavor, coupled with hints of garlic and vinegar blended together, forms the perfect balance of sweet and tangy. Country Meats provides something for everyone’s palate, from spicy to sweet and flavors right in between.

A fundraising tradition

The Geatches family started what would become Country Meats on the family’s 15-acre farm in Ocala, Fla. They converted the barn into a custom processing facility.

By the late ’80s, the family had built their own smokehouses and perfected the art of sugar-curing smoked ham and bacon for a quickly growing number of local customers. Each snack is smoked for 18 hours, ensuring every bite is flavorful.

Then they were approached by a nearby chapter of the Future Farmers of America, now the National FFA Organization. They asked if Country Meats would make some smoked snack sticks that they could sell to raise money. That blossomed into a fundraising program that schools, sports teams and Scouts have used to fund their endeavors.

Scouts can buy cases and sell the individual snacks, which are protein-rich, low-carb and contain no trans-fats. They also can take pre-orders and distribute them when the cases arrive or sell online through the company’s contactless fundraising method.

We’ve got patches

In addition to helping offset the cost of Scouting adventures like summer camp or the 2023 National Scout Jamboree, fundraising projects help teach Scouts the value of hard work — literally. The harder they work, the more products they sell, and the less the financial burden becomes on their family and themselves.

And while your Scout raises money to fund awesome Scouting adventures, they can also receive cool patches and prizes through the Country Meats fundraising program. There are seven patches in all – the more a Scout sells, the more exclusive patch they can get. Top sellers can earn prizes, like hats, backpacks, smartwatches and jackets.

The patch incentives are:

24 sticks = Squad Patch

144 sticks (1 case) = Hero Patch

432 sticks (3 cases) = Copperhead Patch and hat

720 sticks (5 cases) = Cobra Patch

1,440 sticks (10 cases) = King Snake Patch and tactical backpack

2,880 sticks (20 cases) = Midnight Sequoia Patch and a smartwatch

4,320 sticks (30 cases) = Summit Patch and embroidered jacket


About Michael Freeman 461 Articles
Michael Freeman, an Eagle Scout, is an associate editor of Scout Life and Scouting magazines.