MAFES renovations benefits MSU students and customers
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY (WCBI) – MSU is welcoming students and alumni this homecoming week with newly renovated spaces on campus.
One of those is a favorite stop, the MAFES Sales Store, where customers can stock up on cheese, ice cream, and other treats produced on campus.
“We have a lot of alumni come in,” Allee Shuffield, a student worker, said. “We also have people who tour, who get an ice cream voucher, and we then give them free ice cream cones and stuff like that.”
The Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, also known as MAFES, is continuing to serve the MSU community with its famous cheese, ice cream, and other products.
The store also provides unique opportunities for students with research and education about animal and dairy products.
MAFES Director of Communications Karen Brasher says the store is a business that benefits the university and its students.
“Students have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working at a dairy,” Brasher said. “Our vet school students get to come and check on the animals and make sure we have healthy herds. Then, our food science and our nutrition students work in the processing plant actually turning that raw milk into all these great dairy products.”
Those great dairy products have been available through the MAFES store for nearly 90 years.
It is also one of several locations on campus that benefitted from renovations over the past year.
“The upgrades are really more about creating a space where people could come and buy a product,” Brasher said. “The previous store was sort of L-shaped, we made it more rectangular and so it can accommodate larger crowds and the students were very much a part of helping us move out and move into the new place.”
MSU is set to have an open house for the store on Friday with attendees getting free samplings of cheese, meat and other products.
The staff also advises holiday shoppers to get orders in early for their favorite cheeses.
