Utah farmers donate 2,000 pounds of meat to Beaver families recovering from flooding

PAYSON — As flooding swept through Beaver last month, it left behind damaged homes, power outages and plenty of refrigerators and freezers full of spoiled food. Now, a group of Utah farmers and ranchers is hoping to help.

About 2,000 pounds of donated beef will be delivered Wednesday to families affected by the flooding through local food pantries and, in some cases, directly to those in need.

The effort is being organized by the Utah Farm Bureau'sMiracle of Agriculture Foundation.

For Clayton Beckstead, who helps run the foundation, the decision to help came almost immediately after seeing what was happening in Beaver when heavy rain fell on the Cottonwood Fire burn scar last month.

"Just like everyone, we were watching it on social media unfold in real time," said Beckstead. "Instantly, it was like, 'How can we help these people?' I mean, Utah helps Utah, right?"

Farmers and ranchers will be loading boxes of frozen beef onto trucks at the Beckstead family farm in Payson Wednesday morning to deliver to Beaver.

Beckstead said the foundation is able to respond quickly because it keeps an inventory of donated beef that can be distributed when disasters strike.

"This is what we're good at," he said. "What we do is we take in large quantity donations of cattle. We have them processed and then we have an inventory.

So, in a moment's notice we can deliver, you know, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 (or) 40,000 pounds of a protein at any given moment."

For Beckstead, the donation is about more than providing food.

"I've always thought if you're hungry, it's really hard to get out of a mess," he said. "If you just lost your house in a flood and you're hungry, it's hard to think through that problem."

The foundation hopes the donation gives families one less thing to worry about while they begin putting their lives back together.

"It's a humbling experience," said Beckstead. "We just want everyone to be able to go to bed at night with some food in their stomach."

Organizers said if the need continues after this first delivery, they are prepared to organize additional shipments of food.

They are also looking at future ways to help ranchers in Beaver and Piute counties who lost cattle during the Cottonwood Fire.

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