MO Beef Kids Brings Fresh, Local Meat to School Lunch

A program sponsored by the MO Beef Industry Council is bringing fresh, local meat to Willow Springs Schools. Let’s Taco Bout Beef is a chance for students to both learn about where their food comes from and to have access to locally born, raised, and processed food, said Food Services Director Regina Roberts. 

The program is made possible by local farmers who donate a cow to the school. The school uses program fees to pay for the processing. 

The program will launch on November 10 with tacos for lunch and activities designed to explain the circle of life to the students. This first meal has been made possible by the Nichols family. They have donated both the cow and the processing fee to the school.

The November 10 taco lunch will feed the roughly 1,000 students who eat lunch at school. The program is oriented toward making tacos from the 244 pounds of meat, but in the future Roberts says she plans to try meals designed to make the donated meat go further. The Poor family is planning two donate two cows to the program this year. 

A meal like this would cost the school about $600 for just the meat, Roberts says. “And this is local, fresh meat. I’m gonna promote fresh wherever I can.”

Willow Springs School District has not been immune to the food supply issues that other schools are experiencing. The school menu has to be adjusted every day to accommodate what arrives from her suppliers, Roberts said. 

“I just have to figure out what to do with what arrives,” she explained. 

The program hinges on donated cows from local farmers, and if there are enough donations, serving the students local beef could be a regular occurrence.

“There is nothing stopping us from doing this every week as long as it’s donated,” she said.