Beef donated to Hill City School District

Hill City School District superintendent Blake Gardner has been wanting to be a part of the Beef to School program since he was first introduced to it three years ago. This desire was fulfilled March 29 when Hill City received two longhorns which amounted to 580 pounds of donated ground beef. 

The beef was donated by Travis Bies, whose family has a ranch in Fairburn and runs cattle near Deerfield Lake. Meanwhile, the longhorns were part of a herd that was started by Travis’ son, Traven. 

Four years ago, Traven was killed in a tractor accident on the family ranch at the age of 16. Although he was a student at Rapid City Stevens High School when he passed, his girlfriend attended school in Hill City. As a result, he had many friends in Hill City. 

Travis has been raising his son’s herd ever since and began donating the longhorns in Traven’s memory. He previously donated to The South Dakota Youth Honey group and now Travis has offered to keep Hill City supplied with Traven’s herd for years to come. 

As a long-time friend of the Bies family, George Clinton was responsible for organizing the donation to the Hill City School District and coordinating the processing through Kevin Larsen at Wall Meats. Clinton also generously paid Wall Meats for the processing fee. 

After the meat was processed Larsen delivered it to the Hill City School District March 29. 

According to Erica Layton, Lunchtime Solutions Inc (LSI) food service director, the donated, local grass-fed beef is a healthy and lean protein for the students of Hill City, and LSI is proud to serve it in their meal program recipes. 

In honor of Traven the Hill City School District and LSI plan to hang a memorial banner featuring Traven’s “Flying X” brand in the school cafeteria. 

“Every donation given by local ranchers and received by the schools is a generous blessing and greatly appreciated,” said Layton. “However, this beef is special to this community. I hope that it would make Traven happy to know that his longhorns are being appreciated by students and his friends in the Hill City School District and is making their lunches taste better and making their lunches healthier.”