Pioneering lunches have started in the Big Sandy Schools, with meat provided by Pioneer Production Partners processed at Montana Premium Processors and paid for by North Central Stockgrowers, represented by CJ Hansen.
Montana Premium Process Co-Op, out of Havre, is a USDA Certified process center for Montana beef producers. Most of the beef in the future will be processed in Lewistown because the producer partnership there will be processing it at no charge. Lewistown is a nonprofit federally inspected plant. The Pioneer Production Partners didn't believe it would be fair to ask the Montana Premium Process Co-op to process the beef for free or at a lower cost because it would hurt their bottom line, and they weren't created to process beef free of charge. A bull needed culling; the best way to process the meat was to do so locally.
Shane Chauvet, Bob Quinn, and Glenn Terry formed a steering committee to help launch Pioneering Local Lunches. They are open to changing the name, but they just wanted to get it started.
Shane Chauvet said, " I feel like we need to be accountable to the people that donate this beef to us. And that's where Lianna Heimbigner, head cook at Big Sandy grade school, proposes raising the prices of the school lunches. They haven't been raised in years, and I'm really for this because we want quality lunches for our children where we can provide excellent beef, and Lianna will have the other finances to make a good meal, and the kids come home liking lunch. Liana said local lunch prices are way below average. The good thing is we will still have a free and reduced lunch program. All people have to do is sign up. There's some cost share attached to the price of the meals. Our prices for the meals are way below the local average. Therefore we're not getting the cost share that we could be getting that the other schools are getting. We're leaving money on the table."
Bob Quinn said, "With the money they save from not having to buy beef, hopefully, they can pay for local produce. So my role is to come in with potatoes. We are planning the two best ways to grow potatoes. We have scheduled picking up potato seeds to plant enough for 3000 pounds to begin delivery this fall. So that'll be the first experiment there. Hopefully, others will grow food for the school and be able to sell it locally. Maybe somebody locally will want to grow potatoes for income. And then add to that onions and squash and other things as we go. But we want to start quite simple."
They would also like to go from the schools to the Senior Center, the hospital, the food bank, and the activity center. With all those things, we can grow. All those things will feed people without doing it for a profit.
We already have over 2000 pounds of meat through this program. We have seven beefs that are done.
The eventual goal is to see this beef program become a 5013. C standalone program with financial donations, grain, and vegetables donated, too.
The beef is at the Senior Center and the school on the pilot program. They are excited about that and want to thank North Central Stockgrowers and CJ Hansen.
