Southern Biscuit Day

September 14, 2010

Jeremiah Wright, left, and Zachary Moore bite
into freshly made biscuits Tuesday
in downtown Newton for Southern Biscuit Day.

Hundreds of people received a free, Southern breakfast on the go Tuesday.
Midstate Mills in Newton celebrated the company’s first Southern Biscuit Day on Tuesday with free biscuits in downtown Newton.
“We were brainstorming one day, and we said, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great to have a biscuit day in Newton?’” said Steve Arndt, Midstate Mills vice president and chief sales/marketing officer.
Midstate Mills employees and volunteers gave away more than 500 free biscuits by 10 a.m., just three hours after the distribution started.
“If we give away 1,000 biscuits, that’s great,” Arndt said. “We’ll keep them coming.”
Midstate Mills is also celebrating its 75th anniversary as manufacturers of Southern Biscuit Flour and Tenda-Bake Corn Meal and pancake mixes.
Company workers gave away biscuits and beverages from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The company’s Quality Assurance team baked biscuits using Midstate Mills’ Southern Biscuit Flour.
“These biscuits are hard to mess up,” said Belinda Ellis, a Midstate Mills employee. “They bake up perfect every time.”
Johnsonville Sausage provided sausage links to make sausage biscuits, and Midstate Mills also had other condiments, like jelly, for people to enjoy on their biscuits.
The key to a great biscuit is the Midstate Mills’ soft-wheat flour, which is grown in North Carolina, company employees said. The soft wheat makes biscuits fluffy, not dense.
Representatives from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture’s marketing division also attended Tuesday’s free biscuit event.
The representatives met with Midstate Mills employees to develop marketing techniques for North Carolina farmers.
“(Companies like Midstate Mills) keep jobs here in North Carolina, and it keeps North Carolinians working,” said G.W. Stanley, a marketing specialist with the N.C. Department of Agriculture. “It helps the economy here. One affects the other. It’s really important that this happens.”
Members of the First Presbyterian Church in Newton Children’s Morning Out program received a pleasant surprise Tuesday during their morning stroll.
Program teachers pushed the youngsters in strollers through downtown Newton, only to discover the free biscuit giveaway.
“We were just taking a stroll through town, and we just saw the (giveaway),” said Unitra Rankin, infant teacher at First Presbyterian Church in Newton. “It was a beautiful day, and the biscuits were an added bonus.”
Midstate Mills is a family owned company, and Arndt is the third generation of company workers, and his son, Alex, recently joined the team.
“I feel really proud; we’ve come a long way,” Arndt said of the company’s progress within the last 75 years. “We’re helping to grow the company, and we’ve taken a lot of pride in what we’ve accomplished.”
For more information about Midstate Mills, visit www.southernbiscuit.com or www.midstatemills.com.