One On One With: High school students grow beef for use in their cafeteria meal program

Students at Indian Creek High School in Indiana’s Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corp. district have been raising a number of beef cattle given to the school by the Creek Cattle Co. When they reach maturity this summer, Creek Cattle will process them into meat that the school meal program will then serve to students. The initiative thus has both an educational component for not only the students involved with taking care of the animals but others who will benefit from the experience to learn more about where food comes from while also knowing that the meat they are eating is from cows that were well cared for during their lives. In this FM One On One podcast interview, Carol Schaaf, director of food service for the district, talks about the school-raised beef program, how she plans to use the resultant product and the benefits in general of this and related farm-to-school initiatives.