PC CattleWomen, RCAN, Recap First Year of Beef into Schools

As the school year draws to a close, RCAN and Phillips County CattleWomen would like to take the opportunity to review and reflect on this past year's Beef Into Schools pilot program.

We certainly learned a great deal and are grateful to the community for the support and participation as we navigated a new process. We are also pleased to reflect on a successful trial: Six beef were donated to Malta Public Schools Nutrition Program by local producers, without cost incurred by the school as we determined our supply needs.

We would like to acknowledge and express appreciation for the producers and organizations that helped us to get this program going and provide a fresh, nutritious protein for our youth: the Mustang Foundation, the Brown Ranch, the Salveson Ranch, Paul and Kayla Warren, Webb Livestock, Jacobs Ranch, H Bar J Ranch, and Monroe Anderson.

Now that we have a year under our belt, we can better communicate how the program works. As an overview, we have worked in coordination with Malta Schools head cook, Ronda Simanton, to determine that we need five-to-six beef to cover the usage for the elementary, middle and high school. The Beef Into Schools program organizes donations by local producers, transports the beef to Bear Paw Meats, coordinates paying the cost of processing the beef, and then picks up and delivers the beef as needed to the school. Safety of the food supply is our first priority, and in adherence with regulations, we must have the beef processed at a state- or USDA-inspected facility. At present, our closest facility is Bear Paw Meats in Chinook. Given that the schools' storage capacity is limited, the City of Malta has generously worked with us to store additional freezers in a secure facility at the Malta Event Center. We also appreciate Art's Furniture and Carpet for working with RCAN and Phillips County CattleWomen to provide affordable freezers for this purpose.

We received overwhelmingly favourable feedback from students and staff regarding the beef. Ronda remarked that there was less grease and water waste while cooking the meat, which correlates with feedback from other programs in the state. We also were able to use the program as an educational opportunity at the elementary school during Farm City Week, at Ag Day, and at other meetings to teach students and other consumers about the food supply chain, and highlight the way a quality, Phillips County product can enhance an already successful nutrition program.

Processing of the donated beef was paid for through donations, fundraising, and grants provided by Triangle 4H Beef Grant, Montana CattleWomen, and Montana Farm Bureau Federation. While the funding sources covered the past year's costs, we hope to make this a sustainable and self-sufficient program to support our nutrition and producers into the future. We are looking to expand our fundraising for 2023-24, as well as to partner with the schools to incorporate a portion of the processing into the nutrition budget, as many other programs have done. Our hope would be to someday defray the cost to producers who donate.

Looking ahead, we have already secured our first processing date for the 2023-24 school year on June 14th! We are also excited to announce that we hope to incorporate Saco Schools into the program, with other programs to be added as supply allows. If you are interested in donating, here are a few points of interest: Donations are tax deductible; we, at present, have to adhere to pre-booked processing dates (but will update if that changes); Bear Paw can only accept animals under 1400-1500 pounds; and all animals must be able to walk out of the trailer. Donations of partial or pre-processed beef is welcome, if it there is evidence that it was processed at a state-inspected facility. If you are able and interested in donating, or would like more information, please contact Taylor French at (406) 781-2827 or [email protected], or Katie Brown at (406) 390-6581 or [email protected], or check us out on Facebook!