Local Beef !

in !

Kalispell

Public Schools!

Jenny Montague!Food Service Director

Kalispell Public Schools!

Katie Wheeler!AmeriCorps Service Member!

FoodCorps!

Wes Plummer!Owner!

Lower Valley Processing Co.!

Our School District:! 6,000 Students!

1 Central Kitchen !

•  8 satellite schools!•  Burgers are offered once/month!•  1200 burgers are served monthly!

2 High Schools!•  Burgers are offered ! daily among 8 other ! choices!

•  750 burgers are ! served weekly!

1 Middle School!•  Burgers are offered ! twice/week!

•  500 burgers are ! served weekly!

Why Local Beef?!

  It’s available year ! round!

  The infrastructure ! and capacity ! already existed

  We want our menus ! to be in line with ! Montana’s top ! agriculture ! products !

And because Montanans LOVE Montana Beef!!

Our Cows…!

…are healthier!!They are sourced from Flathead and Lake Counties, where there are ZERO cattle CAFOs.!

They are grass and hay fed, which means they likely contain higher levels of calcium, magnesium, and potassium, as well as Omega 3’s. !

…benefit our local ranchers.!

Ranchers from Flathead and Lake counties have a nearby, local outlet for their product, which decreases their input costs (i.e. feed, transportation).!

Ground beef utilizes cull cows – a product ranchers can have trouble financially benefitting from.

Size 6:1 patty at all grade levels!

Switched to a smaller bun so that the smaller patty “fits”!

Trained staff to cook fresh patties instead of frozen – added food safety precautions!

Previously paid a weighted average of $2.99/#.!

Now pay $2.95/#, which puts approximately $22,000/year into the local economy and saves KPS approximately $300/year.!

Distribution: once/week at all three kitchens!

Specs & Barriers:!

“The aim for the larger Montana Beef to School project is to create local markets that incentivize local ranchers to have cows processed in the state. !

Today, most cattle born in Montana are shipped off to Mid West feedlots where the major processors have centralized their markets in the corn belt. There are not as many CAFO’s in Montana because grains (soy and corn) are often prohibitively expensive here. !

This also means that locally raised and processed beef have not necessarily been administered antibiotics because they are not being fed an unnatural diet of grains. !

…This transparency between producer and consumer is the surest way to clean up the supply chain.”!

 

-- Lea Howe! FoodCorps Fellow, Montana!

Questions?!