Schools to be reimbursed for beef

State officials Tuesday started to inform school leaders how they can get their money back after destroying tainted beef used for lunches.

Jack O’Connell, the California superintendent of public instruction, asked the California Department of Nutrition Services to become actively involved in educating school leaders on the bad meat, which came from a slaughterhouse accused of processing downed cattle.

Schools will receive an application for reimbursement from the state’s Department of Education, according to state officials.

“Our understanding is that the California Department of Education would then expedite our reimbursement to schools that incurred expenses in paying for National School Lunch Program food that then had to be destroyed,” O’Connell said.

It has been previously reported the Newport-Mesa Unified School District has roughly 100 pounds of beef on-site, while around 10,000 pounds is on hold at processing sites.

Efforts to reach Newport-Mesa Director of Nutrition Services Richard Greene were unsuccessful.

Westland Meat and the Hallmark slaughterhouse are under investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture for alleged inhumane practices that were used to process downed cattle. The company is one of the largest distributors of beef to the National School Lunch Program.

It is likely some of the recalled beef from Westland was already consumed by Newport-Mesa children, Greene had earlier said.

“Thankfully, there have been no reports of illness among California students who may have eaten the beef over the past several months,” O’Connell said. “However, I remain very concerned about the recall and the safety of the food supply. I will not tolerate any potential threat to the safety of the food we feed our students under the National School Lunch Program.”

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.