More than a month after the nation's largest beef recall, the Fresno and Visalia unified school districts have dumped thousands of pounds of meat from their freezers, but they are still awaiting full reimbursement for their losses.
The two districts were among hundreds in California affected by a federal recall of 143 million pounds of beef produced by Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Southern California.
Meat from the Chino-based company was recalled in February after the Humane Society of the United States released undercover video showing workers at Westland/Hallmark forcing sick cows to stand with forklifts, electric prods and high-pressure water hoses.
The slaughterhouse was a major supplier of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program.
Fresno Unified spent four days dumping 82,559 pounds of beef into a local industrial waste station, said Susan Bedi, district spokeswoman.
Last month, Paul Idsvoog, director of food services for Fresno Unified, said the recalled meat represented about a month's supply of meals and cost about $60,000.
"We have not seen any reimbursement," Bedi said Thursday.
Schools may begin to see reimbursement funds as early as May, as long as they have submitted their total costs for consideration, said Angela Harless, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Bedi said Fresno Unified has applied for reimbursement for all product expenses but is unsure whether the USDA will provide reimbursement in the form of funds or new meat.
Lynnelle Grumbles, Visalia Unified's director of nutritional services, said it cost $20,000 to $25,000 to replace the beef on the menu after the recall.
The district does not expect to be reimbursed for the cost to buy replacement meat, she said.
But Grumbles said the USDA has promised to send financial reimbursement for the 18,440 pounds of recalled product the district had received, although no date has been set.
"We do get updates, but we haven't been given a timeline about how this is going to happen," Grumbles said.
While Visalia waits to hear about financial reimbursement, Grumbles said the USDA has already arranged a date in May to ship new beef.
"I'm thrilled it is on the way," Grumbles said. "It's better than I had expected."
The meat will not arrive in time to use this school year, though, and will remain in the district's freezers until the fall semester.
On Thursday, the USDA released a list of all school districts nationwide that received beef included in the recall.
The 226-page document listed "school food authorities" -- the rough equivalent of school districts -- that received the meat. It included 584 from California.
Many state and local agencies and school districts had previously told the public which schools had received recalled meat, but Thursday's list was the first complete disclosure by the USDA.
A cover sheet accompanying the list said that the USDA had compiled it by relying on state lists. The memo also noted that because the recall covered two years, students at any one school on the list may not have consumed potentially tainted beef.
The memo also noted that the inclusion of a school food authority in the list didn't necessarily mean that all schools within that district had received the beef.
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Schools that received meat from Southern California slaughterhouse.
