(DNAINFO) Amy Zimmer | September 25, 2016 — For the first time, NYC schools will see hamburgers made from NY cows on the lunch menu.

New York City schools debuted a new menu item on Thursday: a 100 percent New York beef cheeseburger.

At first glance it might not seem like a big deal that the Department of Education added the locally sourced item to its menu.

But in fact, it took a huge effort on the part of NYC SchoolFood, working with the State Department of Agriculture and New York-based farmers, to make the roughly 350,000 to 500,000 burgers appear on compostable lunch trays this Thursday, along with three more Thursdays this year, according to Eric Goldstein, the DOE’s CEO of the school food office.

Prior to the DOE’s search for a locally-made pre-cooked burger, there had been no such mass-produced product on the market, Goldstein explained. All protein served at city schools is pre-cooked to cut down on food-borne illnesses.

Source: Where’s the Beef? 100 Percent NY Hamburger Debuts in City Schools Thursday – Civic Center – DNAinfo New York