Washington Ag Today September 7, 2010 Washington’s beef industry is coming together to help feed beef to the 40-thousand people Second Harvest Inland Northwest serves each week. Patti Brumbach, the administrator of the Washington Beef Commission, says of the people served 40 percent are children and 13 percent are senior citizens.

Brumbach: “Their challenge is they get very little high quality beef protein, or any kind of protein, donated to them for distribution. We are working with Agri Beef, the Cattlemen and CattleWomen and Cattle Feeders and the livestock market folks to launch a campaign to help generate donations of cattle or cash to hungry consumers.”

Under this Beef Counts program donated cattle will be processed by Agri Beef Co. who will distribute family packs of beef to Second Harvest throughout the year and will also provide a 50 percent matching contribution.

Brumbach details an upcoming opportunity for cattle producers to participate.

Brumbach: “The Davenport Livestock Auction is having a rollover auction to benefit Beef Count on October 18^th at one o’clock. We intend to set one up with Toppenish but haven’t confirmed the dates yet.”

You can also make donations, which are tax deductible, online at BeefCounts.org/wa

Finally, Brumbach adds;

Brumbach: “We are really excited about it because it is doing the right thing and it is getting a great, high quality protein into the hands of hungry consumers, but it is also giving beef producers a chance to engage in their community in a collective way that also puts a face on our industry.”

I’m Bob Hoff on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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