Beef for Schools Pushed by Cattlemen

November 21, 2001

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association says current market conditions provide an "excellent opportunity" for USDA to make "bonus buys" of beef for the Agricultural Marketing Service's Commodity Procurement program for school lunches. A letter urging USDA to undertake bonus buys of beef for school lunches went to Secretary Ann Veneman earlier this month.

"The National School Lunch Program provides safe, nutritious meals to this nation's school children," said Sonia Voldseth, NCBA associate director of food policy. "A 'bonus buy' purchase would benefit school children as well as beef producers, and may help provide a jumpstart to the agriculture sector of the economy."

The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in more than 96,000 public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to nearly 27 million children each school day. The program was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946.

"Beef supplies are higher now," said Voldseth. "At current prices beef is a great buy for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and additional purchases of nutritious beef will reduce some of the supply and help school programs on limited budgets."

The current beef market resulted partly from the downturn in travel after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. A downturn in the nation's overall economy has also contributed to a decline in nearly every industry sector, including agriculture. The discovery of one case of BSE in Japan has driven down beef demand in that country. Japan accounts for nearly one-half of all U.S. beef exports and is the largest export market for U.S. beef.

The National School Lunch Act mandates that school meals "safeguard the health and well-being of the nation's children." Participating schools must serve lunches that are consistent with the applicable recommendations of the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

NCBA is working on several additional fronts to move beef through the supply chain, including working with exporters to encourage an increase in beef exports to world markets and alerting retailers and food-service operators about favorable beef prices.