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City gets Christmas tree courtesy of Dunhams
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It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas in downtown McMinnville. A crew brought in the Christmas tree on Wednesday.
“It weighs approximately 6,000 pounds and was donated by Ronnie and Debbie Dunham,” said McMinnville Public Works director Bill Brock.
Debbie says the tree was one of five in the yard when they purchased their home in 1999.
“I think the trees were planted in 1998 by the previous owner,” she said. “That’s as close as I can come to the tree’s age. There were five in a line. Over the years, they became diseased and had to be cut down. This one tree remained.”
The Dunham family enjoyed decorating the tree at Christmas time until it grew too big.
“It got way bigger than we could manage in the yard or decorate at Christmas,” said Debbie. “It was planted in the wrong place. My husband and I had discussed removing it, but I wanted to donate it to the city to give it one more chance at being a Christmas tree and providing joy for the holidays.”
That, says Brock, was two years ago.
“We looked at this tree two years ago and it was just too small,” Brock says. “We went with another tree. The problem we ran into last year was the tree was just too big. It actually broke when we were trying to place it. We decided it was time to scale back on size so it would be easier to manage.”
The department took a second look at the Dunhams’ tree and decided it was just right.
“I was happy to donate it,” said Debbie. “We enjoyed the tree. My kids enjoyed the tree. It brought our family a lot of fun at the holidays to decorate it. I hope it brings the same enjoyment to people when they see it.”
While the city has already placed lights on the tree. It will be decorated by Junior Auxiliary for its Christmas in the Park event Dec. 3 and a lighting ceremony held Dec. 7 following the Christmas parade that is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Superior Walls provided the crane that was used to lift the tree into place on The Lot.

Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community