News
Getting more Missouri beef into Missouri schools
~Missouri Department of Agriculture
The Missouri Beef Industry Council has launched a program, “MO Beef for MO Kids”, aimed at getting more beef into Missouri public schools starting with the Mount Vernon school district in southwest Missouri.
Council director Mark Russell tells Brownfield beef is NOT often served in school lunches and most school lunch services are contracted and it’s hard to tell where the beef comes from, “There’s not a lot of money in the school lunch program and it’s hard to make ends meet. So, usually it’s the low bid and there’s not really a way to trace back the origin or the start of that beef production.”
Russell says many farmers and ranchers in Lawrence County, members of the Southwest Missouri Cattlemen’s group, are donating their homegrown Missouri beef. The goal is to double the amount of beef in the Mount Vernon schools in one year. Russell says the school’s food service contractor Opaa will offer a lot more beef menu items for students to choose from.
The Missouri Department of Agriculture is a partner in the pilot program which was launched October 19th during National School Lunch week and the goal is to get more Missouri beef not only in schools but into other institutions.
I would like to get in touch with someone that could help our school get the beef products to make fresh meals.
My name is Connie I am the food service director at Santa Fe RX schools.