Omaha, Neb. ? The 10-ounce T-bone steaks and 7-ounce beef loins being loaded into trucks at a small meat-processing plant near downtown Omaha aren’t headed for a grocery store or any restaurant.

This beef is bound for Kuwait.

Family-owned Needham Meats has a contract to supply prime cuts of beef for U.S. troops stationed in the tiny oil country along the Iraqi border.

“We do everything that we can do to give them only the best,” said Bill Needham, president of the 50-employee plant on the south side of Omaha’s historic Old Market district.

Military officials and Needham declined to say how many steaks are shipped to the troops in Kuwait. However, the Department of Defense confirmed that Needham is the primary supplier of steaks being fed to troops in the Persian Gulf country.

“The troops are eating extremely well,” said Frank Johnson with the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia, which ensures U.S. servicemen have enough food, clothing, personal hygiene products and medical supplies.

“You have to understand that part of the quality-of-life initiative in the military is to provide them with food that is as good or even better than what they can eat here,” Johnson said, referring to the steaks.

Needham said he knew his company’s steaks were feeding U.S. troops overseas, but he didn’t know they were headed to what could soon be the front line of a war in Iraq.

Needham Meats, a family-owned company in downtown Omaha, Neb., has a contract as the primary supplier of steaks to U.S. troops stationed in Kuwait.

“I don’t really know where my steaks go. The military doesn’t tell me,” Needham said. “All I know is that I’ve done business for the military for 20 years, and they buy very high-quality foods. That’s what we give them.”

Needham Meats has been in business since 1979. Needham is a subcontractor for a much larger firm, Langford-Sysco Foods of Pocamote, Md., which landed the military contract.

“We make every attempt to provide high-quality food for the troops on a daily basis. The steaks are part of that,” said Jack Hooper with the Defense Department’s Logistics Agency.

The Defense Department spends about $7.8 billion per year to feed its troops around the world. More than $3 million in food is being sent over to the troops in Kuwait each week, said Bill McClenahan with the Defense Supply Center.

Needham said he only uses meat from Midwestern suppliers. The company’s president added that his employees took great pride in knowing they were helping feed U.S. soldiers.

“We give them only excellent products,” he said.