From Farm to School Tray: Davis Grown Partners with Local Schools to Provide Local Beef
Local Farmers Partner with Local School Districts through PA Beef Council Program
Bloomsburg, PA, April 16, 2025 —As a former teacher and school administrator, Crystal Davis understands the importance of agriculture. Now a full-time farmer, Davis has found a way to combine her two great passions in life—agriculture and education—through a program that provides fresh, local beef to school students. Through the efforts of the PA Beef Council, the PA Beef to PA Schools (PBPS) program connects farmers with local school districts to provide locally sourced beef for school lunches. The main aim of the program is providing Pennsylvania school children with more beef, more often.
That is a goal Davis can get behind. For her, participating in the program as a beef producer also opens opportunities to educate the children in the districts she’s serving about where their food comes from.
"Education is one of my first loves. I’m a lifelong learner. I value the chance to teach about ag, no matter what age group I’m talking to. Few people understand what goes on behind the scenes for a farm to really make a go. When I talk with students, my hope is that they’ll come to understand what it takes. Many people don’t know that a farmer has to be a chemist, a vet, a mathematician, and an accountant on top of caring for crops or animals,"
she explains.
Davis Grown provides approximately 525 pounds of beef per month to multiple schools in the region including Columbia County Christian School, Columbia Montour Vocational Technical School, Danville Child Development Center, and the Bloomsburg School District.
Davis and her husband Bradley each grew up on a farm and met through 4-H. Today, they own and operate Davis Grown in Zion Grove, PA. After marrying, the couple began buying feeder calves from Bradley’s parents and slowly expanded the beef side of their farm business. Today, they have close to 75 brood cows and finish most of the calves. Davis shares that they have calves on the ground throughout most of the year. In addition to beef, the Davises raise pork, chickens and turkey. They are active at local farmers markets and events in the Bloomsburg area. “We’ve slowly added to our operation. Now there aren’t many animals we don’t have,” laughs Davis.
Several years ago, Davis attended a Farm Institute Conference that she says opened her eyes to the possibilities available through the PA Beef to PA Schools program. “That conference made me realize what we could be doing with our local schools. I heard from other people involved in the program and saw how it was impacting the schools. I knew we needed to do something to get involved,” she says.
The program was a natural fit to the Davis’s operation. “At that point we had a lot of ground beef, which worked out well. We were able to get our ground beef on the menu at Bloomsburg school district,” she explains. Along with the benefits of having a regular outlet for their ground beef, Davis shares that PBPS benefits farmers through the exposure they get in the schools. “Just the connection with the school district has been a benefit for us—people are seeing what we’re doing through the media and on social media. It has opened all kinds of doors, and our customer base has grown. That in turn gives us opportunities to educate people,” says Davis.
Along with the opportunity to grow their opportunities for educating the public about agriculture, Davis says that getting their beef into the schools has developed a strong appreciation for beef with many of the students. “When I attend school events with my kids, many of the parents approach me and ask when our beef will be served next so that they know not to pack a lunch that day,” Davis says. “We hear from the cafeteria staff that there is no food waste on the days our beef is served. They tell me all the kids eat that day.”
In addition to serving their beef, students at the Columbia Montour Vocational Technical School use Davis’s beef to make meals and dishes as part of their coursework. “Those students are working hands on with the beef,” says Davis. “They are getting to see the nutritional value, freshness, and quality when beef doesn’t sit in a freezer for a year before it’s used. It’s great that they are using all Pennsylvania grown and fed products because they know what went into it and where it came from,” she says.
To learn more about PBPS contact Nichole Hockenberry, PA Beef Council Executive Director at [email protected] or 1-888-4BEEFPA.
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The Pennsylvania Beef Council is a producer-controlled and funded organization, which administers the Beef Checkoff Program in Pennsylvania. The Beef Checkoff Program assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. Checkoff revenues may be used for promotion, education and research programs to improve the marketing climate for beef.
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