Colorado schools offer grass fed beef for lunch

A school district in Colorado, containing three schools with just over 400 pupils, is one of the most recent to add grass fed beef to its lunch menu.

An increasing number of consumers are recognising the benefits of grass fed beef over other grain fed meats, and the school district in Colorado is just one of the growing number of districts to provide this healthy alternative.

Last Spring, a parent of one of pupils applied to Colorado Action for Healthy Kids for a grant to help with the cost of the grass fed beef. Once this was approved, the initiative to bring more grass fed beef items to the menu was put into to place and now a portion of the menu, including some of the taco salads, burritos and spaghetti sauces, includes the use of local grass fed beef.

A number of people in the Colorado ranching community purchase the local grass fed beef because they believe it is more nutritional than the alternatives. For the purpose of the school lunch menu, however, the price has been dropped so the district can successfully provide the grass fed beef to the students.

It has been suggested that more schools are beginning to provide grass fed beef on their menus, and it is estimated that more than 10 districts use local grass fed beef in the school meals. It is hoped that if the increasing switches to grass fed beef are successful, all beef based meals served in the district will be replaced with grass fed beef.