Local Montana Beef in Montana Schools? Heck Yes

Beef is not just "what's for dinner." For public school kids in Malta, Montana- it's what's for lunch. And not just any beef- locally grown and locally processed beef.

I saw some of my friends in Malta share this info from "Rural Communities & Agricultural Neighbors" (RCAN) just a few days ago on September 15th.

1st Day eating locally grown and processed beef in our Malta Schools!!! We already have great feedback. Thank you so much to our community and all involved for helping make this dream a reality!

A few days prior to beefing up school lunches with local Montana beef, RCAN thanked one of their local ranch families who helped make it happen.

The Ted and Katie Brown Family was one of our first beef donors for the Beef to Schools program. Ted and Katie are raising the 5th generation on their family ranch and are passionate about keeping agricultural alive in Phillips County. Along with running a full time ranch, the Browns can also be found around the state both running and competing in rodeos and their oldest Anna is training under professional trick rider, Madison MacDonald-Thomas.

RCAN noted back in August that their first donations came from The Salveson Ranch, the Ted and Katie Brown Family, and the Paul and Kayla Warren Ranch.

This is great. I remember a few years ago when the feds were dumping new school lunch standards on schools all across the country. The end result was that kids were not getting nearly enough food, especially the ideal amount of protein that they would need in their daily diet. We had parents calling and complaining about the Obama-era guidelines saying that kids weren't getting enough food at school, so they were going to the gas stations after school to try and get some extra food before sports or work.

Great job once again by the fine folks in Malta and Phillips County.

If you know a school in Montana that is doing something similar, feel free to drop me an e-mail aaron(at)montanatalks.com or send me a message through our "Montana Talks" app.