Auction raises $7,300 for Beef to Schools program

“We couldn’t have been any more pleased with the community support. A lot of business people around town donated things for the auction and bought things to help us raise $7,300,” said Dan Forsea, Livestock Association president.

Auction participants erupted into laughter and applause when Mike Corley, superintendent at the Pine-Eagle School District in Halfway, thanked the ranchers for donating beef, which he said provides a superior source of protein compared to the chicken nuggets the district had been serving in the face of school budget cuts and rising food costs.

Ranchers’ beef donations started in Baker County last school year in the Pine-Eagle District, where Corley said test scores shot up after beef donated by three area ranchers replaced chicken nuggets on the menu.

“Some people came into the school and saw the three chicken nuggets we were serving (per student), and they said ‘you can’t expect kids to learn much serving them three chicken nuggets for lunch,’ ” Corley said.

“When ranchers came to the rescue by donating three cows last January — 1,500 pounds of hamburger — we threw out the chicken nuggets,” Corley said with a laugh.

“Everybody knows the importance of serving a well-rounded meal at school, and for kids to learn, you have to have beef on the menu,” Corley said.

Jean Dean, food services manager/cook for the Baker School District, said that between budget cuts and the $1.50 gap between the $2.57 per meal National School Lunch Program’s reimbursement rate (for free or reduced price lunches) and the $4 average cost of providing a nutritional lunch, Dean said schools in Baker County and across the nation have been forced to cut back, and that meant serving more low-cost, low-nutrition food.

“It’s been said the school lunch program needs a stimulus package. If they give me those 30 million dollars they are spending on a turtle tunnel, I can feed lots of kids for a long time,” Dean said. “But, we have been blessed in Baker County. We have the cattlemen.

“I have a poster in my office that says ‘beef, it’s not just for dinner anymore,” Dean told those attending Friday’s auction.

Last spring, despite scaling back beef portions below what officials felt was optimal, the Baker School District ran out of the meat.

This coming school year, because of the planned donations by the Baker County Livestock Association, Dean said the district will be serving a wider array of beef entrees.

“This year we will be serving more spaghetti, nachos, tacos, chili and meat loaf, and we will be able to add taco salad, Mexican taco pie, beef vegetable soup, sloppy joes, lasagna and cheeseburger pizza at our schools,” Dean said, adding that additional ground beef will be “a big asset” at the high school, where a new food court is planned.

“You are making a difference in the lives of many children with your Beef for Schools program,” Dean said. “When you feed and raise that cow, you are making a difference. When you take that cow to the butcher, your are making a difference. When you give your time and money, you are making a difference.”

Forsea estimated the average value of a cow to be donated to schools will be in the $450 to $500 range, based on current market prices. The plan calls for 10 head of cattle to be donated between now and the start of school, 10 in December and 10 in April.

Corley and Dean said that with ground beef selling for up to $3 a pound, the savings to schools is much greater than the market value of the donated cattle.

Dean said she’s also planning to use a portion of money previously spent on beef to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables, and less sugary, starchy junk food.

Ranchers from all over the state attended the BCLA auction and bid on items, and OCA President Bill Moore said several other county cattle groups across Oregon are looking to follow the lead set by ranchers in Baker County, where the OCA was founded in 1913.

“We had a huge turnout for the auction on Friday night. That may be the biggest crowd we’ve had at a mid-year meeting,” said Moore, who ranches near Unity.

“When we come to Baker County we generally get pretty good attendance, but this auction brought people out,” Moore said. “This beef to schools idea has really brought the community together. It wasn’t just ranchers doing the bidding.”

He said donating beef to schools is a great way for ranchers to help during these tough economic times.

While some other county cattle groups are pursuing beef to schools programs, Moore said some, including Harney County, are taking a little different tack by donating beef to food banks.

What started in January with Forsea and fellow ranchers Meb Dailey and Dwight Saunders donating those three cows to supply all the beef for the Pine-Eagle School District’s lunch program, has blossomed into a countywide program that also extends into Union County’s North Powder School District.

Corley said schools used to get commodity beef at no cost through the USDA, but that hasn’t happened for several years, so the Pine-Eagle District had been paying out between $3,000 and $4,000 a year to buy ground beef.