Utah farmers donate 2,000 pounds of meat to Beaver families recovering from flooding
by Alex Cabrero ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Utah farmers donated 2,000 pounds of beef to Beaver families post-flooding.
- The Miracle of Agriculture Foundation organized the donation to aid affected residents.
- Clayton Beckstead emphasized the importance of food security during disaster recovery efforts.
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.
Photos
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Related topics
BusinessUtahSouthern UtahPolice & Courts
Alex Cabrero
Alex Cabrero has been reporting for KSL since 2004. During his time in Salt Lake City, he has covered several high-profile Utah stories, including the Crandall Canyon mine collapse, the Trolley Square shootings, and the Susan Powell missing person case. He has also covered national and international stories for KSL with Utah connections, such as Hurricane Katrina from the Gulf Coast, the devastating California wildfires, and the earthquake disasters in both Haiti and Nepal. Alex has covered seven Olympics for KSL; 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2014 Sochi, 2016 Rio de Janeiro, 2018 PyeongChang, 2020 Tokyo, and 2022 Beijing. Alex is a 12-time Emmy Award winner, including a National Emmy for his reporting during a standoff in Tennessee. He also won an Emmy in 2016 for the best local TV news reporter in the Rocky Mountain Region. In all, Alex has won more than 50 awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Utah Broadcasters Association. Before coming to Utah, Alex covered the September 11th terrorist attacks, training for the first wave of soldiers from the 101st Airborne who would be sent to Afghanistan, and Country Music star Johnny Cash’s funeral. Prior to KSL, Alex reported for WTVF in Nashville, TN; WRCB in Chattanooga, TN; KPVI in Pocatello/Idaho Falls, Idaho; News 55 in Twin Falls, Idaho; and Cable 6 TV in Middletown, New York. Alex is from Rock Hill, New York. He graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Communications from Orange County (NY) Community College and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Production from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Alex is an Eagle Scout, played college baseball, and was a volunteer firefighter/rescue SCUBA diver for the Rock Hill Fire Department He enjoys visiting National and State Parks, exploring the remote areas of Utah, and playing baseball for the Utah Rockies in the Utah Mens Adult Baseball League.