Montana's second largest agricultural commodity is calf to cow beef production. However, despite being surrounded by cattle ranches, most of the 821 schools in the state serve beef that has been shipped in from out of state. The Montana Beef to School Project is a three year program that aims to change things. Their goal is to make sure that Montana Schools benefit from high quality Montana beef, while supporting local farmers and processors and providing opportunities to educate students about where their food comes from. This program can benefit our school greatly, but only if locals get involved by donating stock and money for processing. Our kids can eat higher quality, locally sourced foods if we work together to make it happen.

Earlier this year, Big Sandy Schools received a half a beef through donation. The Beef to School program connected our school with the donation, and Bear Paw Meats did the processing. Kelly Owen, the head cook at our school, explained that simply putting the locally sourced beef next to the meat they purchased through their distributor was enough to make it clear that the local stuff was far superior. The meat's color, texture, and overall quality was evident by just looking at it. She explained that there are several reasons for this. To begin with, local beef is grass fed, whereas the out of state meat is typically from a feed lot. Local sourcing results in much leaner beef being served to our students when it comes from our farms. In addition, she explained that "food miles" tend to directly impact the quality of the meat. Local beef is only shipped to the school from the processor, which is based in Chinook. This results in far less time the beef is sitting in a truck than the meat that comes from out of state. The fresher the beef, the better. Finally, the Beef to School program provides single source ground beef, which tends to taste better and be of higher quality than beef than that is ground from many different cows moving through a larger processing facility.

In addition to the high quality product, the Beef to School program helps our schools in another way. Beef is expensive. The school currently serves beef once or twice a week in the form of burgers, spaghetti, casseroles, or something similar. Each serving requires around 40 pounds of meat. This means that the school is purchasing enough beef to serve as much as 80 pounds a week. This is a major expense that is circumvented by this program, which relies on donations to cover the expenses. This is no small issue in a small school setting, especially with the recent rises in food costs.

Merell Young and Lane Schmitt, out of Chinook, on behalf of the Cattlemen's Association helped set up the program locally and get the ball rolling by connecting our school with its first donation. The program is already working with Hinsdale schools. It will soon be starting with Turner schools as well.

For us locally, serving our kids and local schools through

this program requires donations. Local producers who donate stock for the school can help improve the quality of the food we serve and the expense associated. People who want to help, but do not raise cattle can donate to defray the cost of processing. Those interested in supporting our children through the Beef to Schools program can contact Lane Schmitt at 406-390-2275. Donations are tax deductible.

All local donations with go to feed kids in our schools higher quality local beef, so all donations support Big Sandy specifically and our local businesses. Montana produces great quality beef. We should work together to make sure our kids are fed the best.