Beefed Up: Uniontown School District Partners with PA Beef Council and Happy Valley Meat Co. to serve more beef, more often.

Uniontown, PA, Feb. 13, 2025. — Uniontown Area School District Food Service Director, Chuck Brown, has a lot of mouths to feed. As the man in charge of school lunch menus across the district, Brown is always looking for easy wins—cost effective recipes that kids will love. Through a partnership with the Pennsylvania Beef Council, Brown is serving up monthly taco Tuesdays for students. He calls the partnership a win-win for all involved—students, the district, and the local farmers supplying the beef. 

Uniontown School District is one of 117 school districts across the state that participates in the PA Beef Council’s PA Beef to PA Schools Program (PBPS). Now in its third year, PBPS connects schools and food service professionals with cattle producers to provide fresh, locally sourced beef to students. The focus of the program is more beef, more often. This year, the program will serve more than 217,000 students across the state with over 132,000 pounds of beef. 

The PBPS program is administered through a 50/50 cost share with schools and the PA Beef Council with additional funding support from the PA Department of Agriculture and other State Beef Council Partners. This marks a significant discount for food service providers and makes acquiring locally sourced beef attainable for many school districts that would otherwise face cost barriers to provide local protein. 

For Brown, participation in the program means that he can offer Uniontown students with high-quality nutritious food they love at an affordable cost. “The PA Beef to PA Schools program is a win-win for food service directors. We are giving the kids a product—locally sourced beef—that we know is of high-quality which will provide a great eating experience. From a financial standpoint, it’s a no brainer because we’re getting the beef at less cost than retail and supporting local farmers in the process,” says Brown. 

 Currently, the district is utilizing approximately 300 pounds of beef per month for their taco Tuesday initiative. Brown has heard positive feedback from both students and cafeteria staff. “Our staff has been asking for the product—they can see and taste the difference in the product—it’s just a far higher quality than what we usually source. Plus, the kids love it,” he says.  

Beef for Uniontown School District is sourced from Happy Valley Meat Co., which is an aggregator that brings together cattle producers to supply restaurants and schools with beef on a sustainable scale. Happy Valley Meat founder Dan Honig shares that the beef for Uniontown comes from two local farms—Wild Rose Ranch in Dry Run, owned by Keith and Cathy Wadel and Ste-Wan Farm in Middleburg, owned by Steve and Wanda Hook. 

Honig shares that farmers like the Wadels and Hooks appreciate knowing where their product goes. He says, “Farmers put years of effort into what becomes one meal for consumers. They want to know their food is appreciated—with programs like PBPS, they know it’s having a positive impact.” 

Along with serving as the conduit for placing local beef into the schools through the PBPS program, Honig is focused on educating students about where their food comes from. “Kids love knowing where their food comes from. They have good questions, and they want to understand. I love that I’m able to give them those answers and explain why farm to table matters,” says Honig. Brown adds that he looks forward collaborating with Honig to offer nutrition education for students in the near future. 

As someone who’s made a career out of connecting farmers with consumers, Honig has a lot of respect for the PBPS program. He says, “The PA Beef Council has hit a home run with this program. I’m really appreciative of their ability to tap into this huge demand with schools across the state. It’s a big win for everyone when students are eating high-quality nutritious food and coming away from the lunch table with a better understanding of where their food comes from and the care that went into growing it.”