A few months ago, I was introduced to Nick Wolfenden, animal welfare lead at Tyson Foods. We immediately hit it off and became fast friends, which made me comfortable enough to make a somewhat embarrassing admission: I didn’t know the first thing about what Nick really does in his role.

Nick and Jess, the best of friends.

I’d heard about our animal welfare initiatives, whether it was from thumbing through our annual sustainability report, keeping up with press releases about new programs or updated progress, or having the inside scoop from sitting directly across from our sustainability communications manager, but I didn’t have *quite* enough information to make me feel dangerous. And I like feeling dangerous.

Being an experiential learner, I went out on a limb and asked Nick if I could hang with him for a day and see first-hand what his job as an animal welfare lead entails. Nick not only gave a resounding ‘yes,’ but got several other people on our animal welfare team on board to give me an experience I won’t quickly forget: my first ever animal welfare audit at one of our contract poultry farms.

From getting my poultry handler certification and badge, to learning about the ethical practices behind how we treat the animals entrusted to our care, and finally to stepping foot on a poultry farm and holding a chicken for the very first time (!!!), everything I experienced gave me a better understanding of the important work our animal welfare team is doing to feed the world more sustainably.

Check out my experience in the video below!

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Storyteller. Ideator. Collaborator. Adamant ‘Yes And’-er.

ENFP. The Enthusiast and The Giver.

Jess is the Managing Editor and Chief Blogger for The Feed, and loves to unsolicitedly tell everyone she encounters that she has the coolest job on the planet.

In her spare time, she loves finding new shows to binge-watch on Netflix, doing improv and sketch comedy, and taking on the alias "Ginger Dungle" for Louisville Championship Arm Wrestling.

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