PA Beef Trail has suggestions on tasty dishes
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Founded in 1985, the Pennsylvania Beef Council is a non-profit organization working on behalf of beef farmers and ranchers to promote and educate consumers on the state's beef infrastructure.
The organization does so through a number of programs and initiatives, according to Kylie Lusk, director of consumer affairs.
Lusk was born and raised on her family's dairy farm in southwestern Pennsylvania, and went on to attend Penn State for animal science and agribusiness.
"This is something that I've always been passionate about: connecting producers with consumers and telling that agriculture story," she said.
Telling that story was part of the inspiration for the organization's newest initiative, the PA Beef Trail.
Modeled after the Wisconsin Beef Council's prime rib trail, the initiative seeks to link consumers up with the best beef-based dishes from across the state.
"The beef trail is where consumers are able to nominate their favorite beef dishes from restaurants all across Pennsylvania, so it was all consumer driven, to highlight special beef dishes from their favorite spots or maybe some new spots in Pa.," Lusk explained.
Once nominated, the organization verified that the business had a physical location, and they were added to the map available at the council's website.
"We wanted to be as inclusive as possible and share all of the great ways that people are enjoying beef around the state," Lusk said, adding that any dish that features beef as its main protein is welcome.
Lusk said the trail gives consumers the chance to step outside of their comfort zone.
"It's always easy just to fall back on something that's familiar, and I think half the problem is when people are looking for a place to eat, maybe they just don't know what's out there," she said, calling the initiative "an all-encompassing resource for anyone from around the state."
"It was a lot of fun getting to connect with consumers all across the state," Lusk said, noting that the organization received a total of 73 submissions.
"These range from a burger from down the street to some higher end delicacies. There's a lot of really good looking steaks, a lot of ribeyes on the trail. There's even a couple tomahawks from some different spots," she said.
With attendees of the Little League World Series soon to flock to the area, the trail features a "Williamsport Hyper Local Trail."
"The National Beef Cattlemen's Association are a partner of the Little League World Series, and since that is hosted in our backyard, the Pennsylvania Beef Council helps to amplify some of their efforts, one of those being this hyper local Little League World Series/Williamsport Beef Trail.
In designing the local trail, the organization worked with the Lycoming County/Williamsport Chamber of Commerce to reach out to area restaurants in search of interested participants.
The local trail will not only be available through the council's website, but also as part of the official Little League World Series app.
"So many people are coming in, and there's such great local restaurants around that area. We're really excited to be able to highlight those," Lusk said.
"We'll also be on site at Little League. They do a player meal every year, so we're able to be a part of that, which is really cool to get to connect with a lot of the players and bring some beef to them that day," she said.
Window clings and signage will help consumers to identify restaurants that are part of the beef trail or the more hyper local Little League World Series Trail.
Lusk said that there was a lot of excitement around the inaugural year of the initiative.
"They were really honored to be chosen because it is their customers who are nominating them to be a part of this," she said.
"We're really proud of how everything has turned out for this first year, and this is something that we would like to be an annual thing," Lusk said, with nominations for the 2027 trail expected to run from January to mid-April.
"Next year's trail will launch again on May 1, since May is National Beef Month, so we like to highlight it and kick off the start of Beef Month with a bang," she said.
"Its also important to note that we're not going to have any revolving nominees or participants, so each year, if you're featured on the trail, you'll have to be renominated" Lusk added.
Along with the Beef Trail, the council also focuses on other initiatives including their PA Beef to PA Schools program.
"This is a statewide initiative that started a few years ago, and it's a 50-50 cost share program where we're getting local beef into local schools," Lusk explained.
The Beef Council works with local farmers to pair them with nearby school districts.
"It's really nice and neat that we're able to get local beef into schools and the students and the school just love it. They are so excited when they have fresh beef in the cafeteria," Lusk said.
Another program the council runs is their Beefing Up Backpacks initiative, in which they donate beef sticks to local backpack programs.
"Most of the backpack programs throughout Pennsylvania are really lacking in animal proteins, especially health stable ones, so we kicked off this initiative a few years ago to produce a beef stick that could be in these backpacks, and we've been working with schools and food banks all across the state," Lusk explained.
With a lifelong passion for agriculture, Lusk said she couldn't be happier working with the organization.
"We're a small but mighty team, so we're going to take every opportunity we have to build that awareness of what we're doing and how we're trying to help farmers, help consumers and just bring these stories to life," she said.
For more information on the PA Beef Council or Trail, please visit www.pabeef.org/pa-beef-trail.