The Nebraska Cattleman has launched a new Beef in the Schools program, which will add local beef to area school systems.
“Right now the majority of the commodity beef in the school lunch program comes out of California, the dairy butcher cows in California,” explains Brenda Masek, Region 2 vice chairwoman of the Nebraska Cattlemen. “We here in Nebraska, the No. 1 cattle-feeding state and No. 2 calf-producing state, don’t feel that’s the way it should be. We think kids in Nebraska schools should be eating Nebraska beef, so we’re getting locally raised beef onto the lunch plates of Nebraska kids.”
According to the Omaha World-Herald, local producers donate beef to the program, which is then processed at a small Nebraska plant and shipped to participating schools. Several producers and schools have decided to participate in the program. Mullen Public Schools, one of the participants, have about 160 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and will need eight or nine cattle to supply the lunch program for an entire year.
