DCA launches campaign to celebrate a century of growing chicken

At top, from left, Delmarva Chicken Association President Zach Evans and Executive Director Holly Porter receive the Congressional Record Statement marking the 100th anniversary of the modern chicken industry from Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons during a kickoff event at the Delaware Agricultural Museum. Above, Belinda and Dean Bennett pose at the exhibit commemorating Belinda’s grandmother, Cecile Steele as a pioneer in the poultry industry. (Photo by Sean Clougherty)

DOVER, Del. — When Cecile Steele received ten-fold the number of chicks she ordered from a hatchery a century ago, she likely didn’t think it would lead to a multi-billion dollar industry, but it has.
Delmarva Chicken Association launched a year-long educational campaign, “Growing For 100 Years,” to celebrate the innovation and growth of the meat chicken industry, which began a century ago on Steele’s farm in Ocean View, Del.
In 1923, a shipping error sent 500 chickens to her farm instead of the 50 she had ordered.
This prompted her and her husband, Wilmer, to build the first broiler chicken farm on Delmarva. After selling 387 of those 500 chickens at $0.62 cents per pound, the Steele’s started another flock. Within three years, the Steele’s had built coops for 10,000 chickens and jumpstarted the model followed by many farms dedicated to raising chickens for meat. By 1928, there were 500 broiler growers on Delmarva, mostly in Sussex County.
Since that first broiler chicken flock in 1923, the industry has become a powerful economic engine for agriculture and the entire Delmarva region. Today, there are more than 1,300 family farmers growing chickens on Delmarva, more than 18,000 chicken company employees, and hundreds of allied businesses in the chicken community, working together to produce $4.5 billion worth of chicken a year.
To kick off the Growing For 100 Years campaign, DCA and presenting sponsor Perdue Farms hosted a launch event at the Delaware Agricultural Museum in Dover, Del. on Saturday, Feb. 11. More than 150 industry leaders, innovators, farmers, lawmakers and officials attended to mark the occasion. With the museum’s poultry exhibit as backdrop, officials regaled the industry’s history and importance to Delaware and the region.
“Thing about it, a math error and a resourceful woman,” said Delaware Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long. “Chicken is vital to Delaware’s economy, and it’s an honor to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cecile Steele’s first flock.”
Among the kickoff event’s attendees was Cecile Steele’s granddaughter, Belinda Bennett, and her husband Dean. Belinda said her mother was 8 years old when Cecile died so while she knew the story of her grandmother raising chickens, she’s enjoying learning more about the impact it has had.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” Belinda said. “For a woman in the 1920s to pioneer an industry, it’s huge and we know that.”
DCA said the centennial campaign is designed to educate the public through TV, digital platforms, publications, billboards across the region and community events in Maryland and Delaware about chicken farming’s traditions and how it has evolved.
“This campaign is about paying tribute to the farmers, chicken companies, and allied businesses advancing the industry, and looking forward to the bright future ahead for the chicken community,” said DCA Executive Director Holly Porter.
Delaware’s congressional delegation of U.S. Senators Tom Carper, Chris Coons and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (all D-Del.) honored this milestone in a Congressional Record Statement.
“The industry may have started with an accidental delivery, but we can look back on it now as an amazing economic opportunity for Delmarva and the thousands of families it supports,” Carper said in the statement. “Raising broiler chickens is a way of life for the more than 1,300 farm families on Delmarva whose hard work provides food for hundreds of thousands of people in our country and around the world.”
“Delaware’s mild climate, infrastructure, and closeness to key markets smoothed the way, but the growth of the chicken industry happened thanks to hard work by farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs,” said Michael T. Scuse, Delaware’s Secretary of Agriculture. “On this important anniversary, we thank generations of farmers and companies who dedicated themselves to feeding their neighbors.”
2023 is also the 75th anniversary of Delmarva Chicken Association, founded in 1948 to organize the Delmarva Chicken Festival and formerly known as Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc. This year is also the 10th anniversary of forming the Congressional Chicken Caucus, which was founded by Coons and serves to educate federal lawmakers on issues facing the poultry industry.