By Brenda Sexton-The Courier-Herald

The Enumclaw and White River school districts were among more than 100 across Washington and more across the nation that have been asked by the United States Department of Agriculture to pull beef from their shelves.

The USDA is investigating whether the Hallmark Meat Packing Co., a California slaughterhouse, violated state and federal animal treatment laws.

Thursday, the state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction alerted its 295 districts and other private schools under its umbrella of the USDA's suggestion to stop using the ground beef.

According to OSPI Media Relations Manager Nathan Olson, some of the state's school districts are recipients of beef from Westland Meat Co., which gets its product from the Hallmark slaughterhouse.

Both the Enumclaw and White River districts immediately removed the meat in question. Although there appears to be no immediate health issue, the USDA has asked the meat be placed on hold while the agency conducts its investigation. Olson said it is a local control issue for districts.

The Enumclaw School District received 10 cases of the beef during the past two months.

“None of the 10 cases of beef in question had been used, so parents should not be concerned that their children had been receiving any of the identified meat,” said Tim Madden, Enumclaw's director of business and operations, in a press release issued by the district.

According to district public relations director Gerrie Garton, the Enumclaw School District receives its raw ground beef from Westland Meat Co. and uses it for secondary lunches like tacos. It also has beef processed through Pierre Foods and returned to the district as precooked items. As of Friday, Pierre products were not part of the investigation, but Garton said the district has pulled all beef products from its menu until it is told it is safe to return it.

According to OSPI, White River, which also supplies food for the Carbonado Historical School District, received two cases of beef.

White River Food Services Director Katie Watland said her district does not use raw ground beef, but does used processed meat from Kings Command, which gets its product from Westland Meat Co., and was part of the cases asked to be removed.

“As soon as we found out this morning, we did what we were asked to do,” Watland said.

Watland explained White River receives its product as processed, precooked items like hamburger patties, meatballs and taco meat.

Over the course of the past two months, Watland said some of the product had been used with no reported problems. She said the district will not be taking beef completely off the menu, instead the district is opting to use beef from other sources not effected by the investigation.

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@courierherald.com.