Roadkill for lunch? Alaska's doing it and students are eating it up

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is exploring ways of once again using roadkill as a source of food.

Until 2009, charitable organizations in the province welcomed donations of moose meat salvaged from highway accidents.

Wildlife officers who put down injured moose would donate the animals and the charities turned the usable meat into burgers for community events.

But the practice ended eight years ago, with the government citing concerns about liability.

The Minister of Fisheries and Land Resources told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning that he is looking into safe and effective ways of doing it again.

Gerry Byrne says every year, approximately 650 big game animals are sent to landfills across the province.

While Byrne has not set any timeline, he may be able to base a strategy on a popular program making headlines in the most northern part of the United States.

Alaska school lunch program

The state of Alaska has launched a program called Let's eat more of Alaska's traditional foods.

Conservation officers there compile a list of animals that have died or been illegally hunted or killed accidentally, and non-profit organizations can apply for a moose from the list.

One school in Haines, Alaska, has been making use of the program for the past three years.

The students themselves help their teachers and supervisors to butcher, clean and process the meat for the school's lunch program.

"We get the good meat off the moose, and then we throw the bad meat in a different container," said Seth Waldo, a Grade 12 student, who helped butcher an animal recently killed in an accident in the community.

"Meat up here is really expensive, and the kids here get to deal with a lot of moose meat just because it's a way of life up here."

'Teachable moment'

According to the school's principal, Rene Martin, the students were able to salvage about three quarters of the moose.

"We had over 300 pounds at the end of processing," she said. "It's hard to put a value on it, but I'd say that's at least going to get us 10 meals for our students."

The meat was processed into burgers, for use in tacos, spaghetti, stews — anything the school would normally use beef in.

"It does make a considerable boon to our lunch program," Martin said.  

"Any way we can subsidize [the cost of meat] with healthy choices for our students, that's a priority for us and our school."

It's also educational.

"So you know, teachable moment. We think about those a lot in education, and this was an opportunity for teachers to walk their kids through what was happening, why we had [the moose] and what the result was," Martin said.

"We had our largest lunch service yet this year on the day we served that first round of moose burgers."