MOORE — Ranchers of Montana deal with cull cows every year. Well, a young lady from the town of Moore came up with a unique idea to help with this issue, as well as serving good quality local beef to school districts throughout Montana.
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Here’s a few words from Lexie Wichman. Growing up on a ranch, I've always had access to fresh beef and growing up in a small rural school where we only have, you know, 75 kids. I wondered why we didn't have access to the beef that these ranchers had growing just outside of our school. So, you know, looking at the geographic aspect of it, having over 80,000 cull cows, meaning cows that aren't bred leaving our state every year. It was amazing to me that we weren't putting that back into our school systems because the quality of beef that our schools get through federal, federal funds, they the quality of it just isn't what we could be eating. So, you know, if we have access to beef, you know, right here, I live five miles from our school. So being able to donate beef to our school where we're all such in a local area and, you know, we can put more of this beef that's leaving our state back into our school systems. I don't see why we wouldn't be doing it. I feel like, you know, feeding our youth quality food, I mean, whether that is beef or if it's pork or vegetables or fruit, I feel like it goes all around the board is If we have access to it, why aren't we using it?
Lexie’s Teacher and Advisor Mandy Eike says it's pretty exciting, when she finds things that she's passionate about, she goes full force. She wanted to do this for several years and I got to be her her cheerleader behind her as she did it all. It's pretty cool to have kids in more school who are so passionate and driven and want to do great things for our school and our community.
Lexie's hard work has not gone unnoticed. Her FCCLA Advisor says her project qualifies as a Star Project for the FCCLA State Convention in March. Star stands for Students Taking Action with Recognition.
Lexie says the first day we ever fed this beef that I donated to our school every single kid had seconds like it was truly. We had spaghetti and every kid loved it from our elementary all the way up to our high school.
This young lady from Moore is an inspiration to the youth of Montana. This lunch program she created and implemented will not only save money for the Montana School Districts. Your kids will be eating good quality local Beef. It's what's for lunch!
For more information on how to be a part of this program or to donate, click here.
Questions or comments about this article? Click here to email reporter Paul Sanchez.
