Beef Counts at Second Harvest Distribution

Beef Counts at Second Harvest Distribution. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

A joint collaborative program is helping to distribute groceries including beef roasts around Washington and Idaho. Bridget Elliott, Director of Consumer Information, Washington State Beef Commission says there are a number of events planned.

ELLIOTT: We have a dozen distribution events between January and June where Beef Counts product is going to be distributed in Second Harvest’s mobile food distribution. These are generally regularly scheduled events for Second Harvest but the benefit of the Beef Counts program has been the industry donating cash and cattle to make these beef roasts available to every corner of eastern Washington.

In addition to the cash and cattle Elliott says that it’s also a chance for the cattlemen and women to get personally involved.

ELLIOTT: Last week in Ellensburg it was really an effort driven by our Kittitas County cattlemen so they supplied all the volunteers for that event and as well they presented an over $3000 check to Second Harvest to go towards Beef Counts in supplying more beef roasts to make sure we have enough for year round beef distribution.

Again it is a collaborative effort.

ELLIOTT: It’s basically a collaborative effort between all of our producer groups. So we’ve got the cattlemen, the cattlewomen, the cattle feeders, the Livestock Auction Association and the Beef Commission as well as AgiBeef. The way the program works is any donation to the program AgriBeef matches 50 cents on the dollar up to $50-thousand dollars a year. So our beef producers; the different groups the cattlemen, the cattle feeders they’re all working with their memberships to get the word out.

There is an event scheduled for today at the Moses Lake Washington Senior Center and according to Second Harvest a fair percentage of folks don’t get enough of the protein found in beef.

ELLIOTT: Less than 4% of all the food that they distribute to their clients regularly is high quality protein or meat protein. I think they average is out like .7 ounces of protein per recipient and so having the beef roasts available is a pretty substantial thing for Second Harvest because they’re always struggling to meet the need for protein.

The industry has raised over $80,000 to-date.  If you’d like more information on the Beef Counts program or Second Harvest visit them on the web at beefcounts.org. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.