The Beacon was provided with information on what the Belle Fourche school district has in place for the “Beef in Our School” program. The school lunch program uses about 14,000# of burger each year. That equates to around 4,600 pounds of beef each school quarter. To generate this much burger it would require roughly the need for about 28-30 hd. (this would be mostly cows or bulls due to making hamburger out of it all).
To be able to use in the program the beef needs to be processed in a state or federally inspected facility. Austin Bishop contacted the local butcher shops who were unable to accommodate this requirement. They next contacted Wall Meats and they have set up two butcher times for us to kill seven head each time. Seven on Sept. 14th and seven on Sept. 21st. This will supply the district with about ½ of its needs. Wall Meats will also have slots for the district in Nov. and Dec. as well.
At this time the District is looking for donations to fill the butcher slots in Sept. They can drop off any butcher livestock at either the Belle Fourche Sale barn or the St.Onge Livestock sale barn at any time and they will be kept and fed their until the delivery date. Rollover auctions are being planned at each sale barn prior to the butcher dates in order to help offset the processing costs. Saint Onge Livestock will be Sept. 15th during the world champion auctioneering contest.
The school is advising that they would appreciate any support people may provide at that time. If anyone would like to donate a livestock or an item for the rollover auction, or donate cash for processing, have them contact Scott Reder 605-641- 3435 Austin Bishop 605- 390-5403 or Chad Mckabben 605-484-8709. Also the meat that is donated will be valued at the market price the day of delivery to Lunch time solutions and that value will be credited to the school food account and those extra funds will be put towards purchasing more fruit, vegetables and healthy foods for a healthier variety.
