School receives donation, faculty gets ‘cow-pied’

Lunchtime at the Hill City School District last Friday was “udder” chaos in the “calf-eteria” as the students said “moo-chas grass-ias.” 

The school hosted a thank you luncheon in honor of Travis Bies and his donation of beef to the Hill City School District lunch program. For the second year, Bies has supplied the school with enough beef for the entirety of the year. Last year Bies collaborated with George Clinton of Hill City for the donation; this year Bies was the sole supplier. The beef is donated in memory of Bies’ son Traven. Traven’s Flying X brand is proudly displayed in the cafeteria in his honor. 

“You get a lot of people talking about community. The only way you can have a good community is to be part of it,” Bies said.

Thanks to the donation, the school has been able to completely eliminate commercial beef from the menu.

“It’s locally grown South Dakota, free range, no hormones, no chemicals, grass fed beef. And we’re really proud of that,” said Erica Layton, food service director for Lunch Time Solutions. “It’s high quality. I hope you get a chance to try it.”

Served at the luncheon were sloppy Joes and meatloaf prepared with the donated beef at a cost of $5 to the public. The walls were adorned with thank you cards made by the students.

It was an opportunity for the students to learn about where their food comes from, say thank you, and have a little fun with “cow pies” to commemorate the occasion. 

“We wanted a fun activity so the kids would remember this day a little bit more and that’s always their favorite, doing something with their teachers,” Layton said.

Three volunteers, superintendent Blake Gardner, third grade teacher Brady Chase, and school resource officer Chaz Foss lined up to take “cow pies” of whipped cream to the face during the event. Student names were drawn for a chance to be a pie thrower and they all hit the “bulls-eye.”

“First of all, we wanted to say thank you to Travis Bies for donating the beef,” said Gardner. “We wanted to create some hoopla around the donation and so we took some volunteers to get pied in the face. It’s a good thing for our school and our kids and our community. So the least we could do is step up and get kind of messy.”

The donation of quality beef is significant in Lunch Time Solutions’ objective to improve the quality of the food while facing budget issues. 

“It’s hard because the state gave us a 7.9 percent increase and we’re seeing a 43 percent food inflation. So it’s challenging,” Layton said. 

After a meeting with parents in November and sending out an electronic survey to students, Lunch Time Solutions has been making menu changes based on the feedback. 

“I think we’re really doing a good job, and our numbers are reflecting it. Our numbers, our participation numbers, are up across the board,” said Layton.