Stanwood, Wash., rancher Jim Anderson holds up a box of food distributed during Second Harvest’s Mobile Market. The Washington beef community’s Beef Counts program marks its 15th year battling hunger. (Courtesy Washington Beef Commission)

Washington’s beef community kicked off Beef Counts’ summer grilling season by distributing 652 pounds of ground beef May 21 in Spokane, feeding 326 families.

The Beef Counts program has been serving communities since 2010, as ranchers partner with the nonprofit Second Harvest.
“Feeding people is what we are passionate about,” Ellensburg, Wash., rancher Johnny Sarreal said in a Washington Beef Commission press release. “The opportunity to raise beef and giving that to people is a valuable thing to do. I want our kids to understand that being part of a community is an important aspect of life.”

“The folks in Washington’s beef community know how to stretch a dollar, and their donations are critical to us as we work to help feed our friends and neighbors in need,” Drew Meuer, president of Second Harvest, stated in the press release. “Year after year they step up to bring much-needed relief. But with this year’s extra tight food supplies, this beef is the essential nutrition our communities need.”

The beef included in Second Harvest’s Mobile Market food distributions is made possible each year by donations from Washington’s farmers and ranchers and matched by Agri Beef Co. The donated beef is packaged and shipped from Agri Beef’s Washington Beef processing plant in Toppenish directly to Second Harvest, where it is then distributed to communities across Eastern Washington. 

To learn more about the Beef Counts program, or to donate visit: wabeef.org/beef-counts. To learn more about Second Harvest, visit 2-harvest.org.