Three local school districts were among more than 70 in the San Joaquin Valley that received questionable meat involved in the nation's largest recall last week.

Farmersville Unified, Strathmore Union Elementary and Sequoia Union Elementary school districts each received some of the 143 million pounds of recalled commodity ground beef produced by the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company.

“I am very saddened to hear about the allegations of animal abuse at Westland,” said Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction. “I want to assure every parent whose child is on the school lunch program that the California Department of Education will not tolerate anything that threatens the safety of food given to their children.”

While there were no reported incidents of students getting ill, the recall may leave local school districts' budgets looking a little lean.

Cheryl Lockman, food services director for Strathmore Union Elementary School District, said the recall forced her to dump 56 cases, or over 2,200 pounds of ground beef. It was enough meat to last the district the rest of the school year and one of the largest recalls Lockman had seen in her 28 years in food services.

“This really blows up my budget,” Lockman said. “Hopefully I don't go to far into the red but we have to buy the meat from someplace else.”

Commodity ground beef is cheaper for school districts which only pay shipping and handling fees, or about $3.55 per case. Lockman said the district will probably have to pay 10 times that to replace the meat.

Farmersville Unified School District had to dump over two tons of ground beef. Business Manager Grant Schimelpfening said that much meat had to be disposed of at a landfill, but none of Tulare County's three landfills were accepting that much waste fearing it would push them over their tonnage allotment for the week.

“We had to take it all the way to Avenal,” he said. “But the biggest problem was storage. We had to store two tons of ground beef in our freezers for three weeks awaiting a decision from the state. That's in addition to the food we have to store that was used to make meals in the meantime.”

Schimelpfening said FUSD served chicken instead of beef for a few days. FUSD was able to find and purchase commodity ground beef that was not produced by Westland after a few days. The district only had to purchase one or two orders of non-commodity beef.

“It cost us a few thousand dollars, but it could have been a lot worse if we hadn't found another source for commodity beef,” Schimelpfening said.

The schools had to follow state rules on the destruction of the meat. For less than 50 cases, school districts were instructed to open each container and then throw the meat into the dumpster. For more than 50 cases, districts were instructed to take the meat to a landfill or incinerated. Destruction of the food had to be witnessed by the food services director and a verification form must be signed by two employees.

The form is sent to CDE for reimbursement of the destroyed recalled meat. CDE said it would send the forms to the USDA, which would send the funds to the CDE to reimburse the school districts. No timetable for the reimbursements has been set.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture placed a hold on Westland meat products on Jan. 30 following allegations of inhumane treatment at the company of non-ambulatory disabled cattle that may be associated with illness. Federal regulations prohibit cattle in such condition from entering the food supply. Hallmark/Westland is reportedly one of the nation's largest suppliers of beef to the National School Lunch Program designed to provide students with nutritious meals. About half of California's nearly 6.3 million students qualify for free or reduced-priced meals. California schools serve four million such meals a day to students, including breakfast and lunch.

Once the hold was issued, the California Department of Education issued an alert advising agencies “not to serve any processed end-products containing commodity beef unless and until we know that the beef was not from Westland.”

Westland Meat Company has been suspended indefinitely as a supplier to Federal food and nutrition programs. The suspension will remain in effect until all investigations are complete and appropriate action is taken by the USDA. Under the suspension, no further contracts will be awarded to Westland Meat Company. Additionally, Westland Meat Company will not produce or deliver any products currently under contract.

“The recall stemmed from inhumane treatment of animals and not from food safety concerns, so thankfully there have been no reports of illness among California school children,” added O'Connell. “However, the recall was absolutely a necessary precaution to assure that all students have access to safe and nutritious food.”

For more information on the USDA recall, please visit www.usda.gov, keyword “Westland.” For more information on actions by the California Department of Education, please visit http://www.cde.ca.gov/107954.

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