North Dakota schools are waiting for word on whether they can use hundreds of cases of ground beef from a California slaughterhouse under federal investigation.

If the meat cannot be used, it might mean added expense for some school districts.

Districts in North Dakota and several other states stopped using meat from Hallmark Meat Packing Co. and its associated Westland Meat Co. late last month under direction from the Agriculture Department, after a video showed workers brutalizing sick and crippled cows.

The Hallmark plant is being investigated for possible violation of laws designed to ensure food safety and prevent animal cruelty.

Westland sold more than 27 million pounds of beef last year for use in school lunch and other federal nutrition programs. USDA has extended a ban on use of meat from the Chino, Calif., slaughterhouse until Tuesday. It had been set to expire on Saturday.

In North Dakota, the meat has been left in freezers.

Jill Bruce, director of the food service program for Minot public schools, said that district will have to buy thousands of pounds of ground beef to get to the end of the school year if it does not receive permission to use the 65 40-pound cases of ground beef it has from the Hallmark plant.

The district already has had to buy 160 pounds of ground beef, she said.

"It's more of an inconvenience," Bruce said. "It's always been convenient to have the commodity beef."

Buying beef in small quantities also can be more expensive, Bruce said. If USDA decides the ground beef from the Hallmark plant cannot be used, the Minot district would ask for bids from local distributors for a large quantity, she said.

The Jamestown School District has more than 20 cases of the ground beef in its freezers that it cannot use, said Shelley Mack, food service director and dietitian.

"I was able to call other vendors and get ground beef in," she said. "Of course, cost wise, it's costing me, if you look at free versus … per week it's $500 plus."

Bismarck has 161 30-pound cases of "crumbles" - ground beef that is already prepared - in its freezers, said Doug Joersz, food service coordinator for the school district. The school has been using ground beef from another plant instead but has almost exhausted that supply.

"It certainly is an inconvenience," Joersz said. "You plan on using those products."

Statewide, 123 tons of ground beef valued at about $377,000 is affected by the USDA hold, according to Linda Schloer, director of child nutrition and food distribution programs for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. About one-third of the meat has been delivered to school and other commodity programs, and the rest is being stored in a warehouse, she said.

Schloer said calls to the department from school districts worried about the cost of having to buy other ground beef are isolated.

"It is a concern … if this goes on for an extended period of time," she said. "School districts do cover a lot of their ground beef needs through that commodity program."

Some smaller school districts get nearly all their ground beef through the program, Schloer said.

If USDA decides the meat cannot be used, the agency is likely to replace it, Schloer said. However, timing could be a problem as the end of the school year nears.

"If schools don't get the replacement until, say, the end of April, it's going to be difficult for them to use it," she said. "We don't recommend that schools carry over their frozen product into the next school year."