Business memo 01/31/05

State beef council looking for cooks

The Missouri Beef Industry Council is encouraging cooks in the Show Me State to show the nation how well they can prepare beef in the 26th National Beef Cook-Off, Sept. 19 to 21, in Rapid City, S.D. The National Beef Cook-Off is funded in part by the $1 per head beef checkoff and is sponsored by the American National CattleWomen Inc., in partnership with Albertsons.

Twenty national finalists will compete for a $50,000 Best of Beef grand prize and eight other cash prizes totaling $110,000.

A complete version of the National Beef Cook-Off rules, with specific beef cut requirements allowed for each category, is available at the Cook-Off's official Web site, www.beefcookoff. org.

Room service comes to Cape hospital

Southeast Missouri Hospital has announced a new room service that it bills as something you'd expect in an upscale hotel -- made-to-order meals, delivered by uniformed servers.

"At Your Request," is a new room service dining program. Southeast says that typically, meal choices in hospitals are limited, meal times are set by the institution and menu choices must be made a day in advance.

Southeast is the first hospital in the region to offer a room service program. It began in mid-December. From menus at their bedside, patients may order meals anytime from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. There is no extra charge for the service.

Local child-care resource achieves certification

Kristen Foltz-Schlegel of Child Care Resource and Referral of Southeast Missouri announced last week that it had met Child Care Aware Quality Assurance, a national voluntary certification program. The Child Care Aware Quality Assurance system is designed to ensure that families across the country have access to consistent, high-quality services that support them in making informed child-care choices.