by Eric Buck | Nebraska Animal Science
Lincoln, Neb. —The Loeffel Meat Shoppe at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is now offering faculty, staff, and students a 10-percent discount on purchases made at the retail meat store. Shoppers must show their valid N card at purchase to receive the discount.
Open and operating since the 1960s, 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 weiners, multiple varieties of ready-to-eat snack sticks, in addition to fresh eggs. The retail store, located on Nebraska’s East Campus at the corner of 38th and Fair Streets, is open on Tuesdays from 1-5:30 p.m., and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
“We have so many resources on campus and they wouldn’t be what they are without the efforts of the people behind them,” said Jordan Wicks, extension meat specialist. “We wanted to do this as our way of saying thank you to all of the people in the campus community for the work that they do to make the University the great place that it is.”
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.
The shoppe and laboratory are named in honor of Professor William J. Loeffel, the first meat scientist at the University, who was a faculty member from 1919-1962 and served as chair of the department from 1938-1959. Loeffel is one of many pioneers in the meat industry from Nebraska. In the 1970s, Roger Mandigo developed the technology which led to the creation of the McRib Sandwich for McDonalds and Chris Calkins’ work with new cutting procedures returned over $1 billion to the beef industry, including the development of the Flat Iron Steak.
For more information about the Loeffel Meat Shoppe, please visit go.unl.edu/loeffelmeatshoppe.