On 4/6/2017 at 6:18 PM, Lisa Shock said:
Dairy is in the budget, so, I assumed it was being served.
I'd also like to note that chicken (which has a much lower environmental impact, and price, when compared to beef) is not listed either.
I still think that I'd rather feed three times as many people with beans than leaving large numbers of people hungry in order that a minority could have a couple tablespoons of ground beef in their pasta sauce.
Chicken is often donated--it's cheap and plentiful, so I'm not surprised that there's no supplemental cash item for it. Dairy is more perishable, but right now dairy producers and processors have huge surpluses, so also not surprising that the cash line item is low for 2016. Now beef, on the other hand ...
It can be much cheaper to buy beef "on the hoof". Meaning, if you bid for it as futures, you're essentially pledging to buy beeves that will be butchered 6-8 months from now and it will cost a fraction of the retail per-pound price. I am guessing this is what that line item is for. Also, if they got a grant or large donation from, say, the Cattlemen's Association, that may be how they choose to designate it. But I was struck by how low this line item is for a nonprofit that claims to feed 811,399 people a year. Let's assume only 25% of those people were at shelters and meal programs, that's still 202,850 people. Therefore, $5,800 is a line budget that provides only $0.028 (less than 3 cents) per person per year for beef. For an item that is almost NEVER donated, that is a pretty pitiful commitment.
At 3 cents per person per year, I don't think there's any danger of beef taking over beans and macaroni in the menu any time soon.
