Customers at the Loeffel Meat Shoppe on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus will be helping support the local community with their ground beef purchases through the month of May as part of National Beef Month.
As part of the shoppe’s “Buy One, Give One,” ground beef promotion in May, for every pound of ground beef sold through May 30, the store will donate a pound of ground beef to local organizations that help feed those in need throughout the community. The meat shoppe sells frozen ground beef in one- and two-pound chubs priced at $4.34 and $8.38, respectively.
“We spent some time earlier this year meeting with local organizations to discuss ways we could collaborate to help serve our community,” said Jordan Wicks, extension meat specialist. “We normally offer beef promotions in May, so this year we decided to put a different spin on it to help us and our customers support our community.”
As of 2022, more than 43,000 people in Lancaster County were food insecure, which is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.
The meat shoppe is also one of 59 locations statewide participating in the Nebraska “Good Life, Great Steaks” Beef Passport presented by the Nebraska Beef Council from May 1-Sept. 30. The free program is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2025 and consists of 19 meat processors, 31 restaurants, and nine meat markets throughout Nebraska.
“We’re excited to participate in the beef passport program this year,” Wicks said. “Our local customers always tell us that we’re one of the best-kept secrets in town. Our students and staff do great work, and we’re ready to share their work and products with people from across the state who visit us.”
Participants can “check in” by purchasing a beef item at participating locations. Each check-in is worth 100 points, and those points can be redeemed for prizes from the Nebraska Beef Council. Points may only be collected once at each location, and each check-in will serve as an entry into grand prize drawings for one of two beef bundles.
For more information about the program and participating locations, visit the Nebraska Beef Council.
The Loeffel Meat Shoppe is open weekly on Tuesdays from 1-5:30 p.m. and Fridays from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. The store will also be open on select Saturdays this summer during East Campus Discovery Days on June 14, July 12, and August 9 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Located at 3940 Fair Street in Lincoln, the shoppe is a USDA-inspected retail meat sales operation that sells fresh and frozen cuts of beef, pork, lamb, goat, smoked and slicing sausages, brats, naturally cased wieners, multiple varieties of ready-to-eat snack sticks, in addition to fresh eggs. It has been open and operating since the 1960s.
Retail sales from the meat shoppe help offset costs associated with the academic programs in animal science. Livestock are harvested and processed for sale in the Loeffel Meat Laboratory with assistance from Nebraska students in the department. Students gain experience by learning how to process, package, and sell the products that they process, in addition to playing a role in developing new products to sell in the shoppe such as the Jalapeño Popper Bratwurst, which was a two-time national award winner.
