CORYELL COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — In the spring, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut $1 billion from the Farm to School program, that brought locally sourced beef into school cafeterias. Now, many districts have returned to previous suppliers.
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"We felt like we took a step forward and now we're taking a step back. A product that they know where it came from, literally this land, here within 30 miles of all of these schools,” said Blayr Barnard, owner of Barnard Beef Cattle Co.
“You have parents talking about school lunches. They either say they're bad and they send their kid with a school packed lunch, a lunch from home, or they don't talk about school lunches at all. So what we found, was just the huge outcry of parents saying, ‘We want this in our school, we want this in our school,’” Barnard said.
The Barnard family farm has served the Central Texas community for nearly 100 years.
When interviewed last summer, Barnard said the long list of ingredients in processed beef was one of the main reasons she started serving local schools.
“Those range from fillers like soybean protein, and things like that, down to just straight chemicals. I don't want my kid to eat 26 ingredients out of something that should be one. I'd rather them have real beef," Barnard said in that earlier interview.
“I've had no one say that, that I've spoken to, whether it's schools or parents or other political figures, that have said they thought that was a good cut," Barnard said.
She believes there is still a path forward, but it will depend on parents taking the lead.
“I think that in order for this movement, this farm to schools movement, to take place again, it will have to be parent-led, reaching out to their local schools and their politicians. They need to go to not just their schools, because their schools already would love to do this, but they need to go to their politicians and they need to write those letters, send those messages,” Barnard said.
