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Jewell Walker joins First National Bank
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A 22-year banking professional and a lifelong Warren County resident has been named assistant vice president and branch manager/ mortgage loan officer at First National Bank of Middle Tennessee, Pieter van Vuuren, president and CEO, announced.
Jewell Walker will start at the Smithville Highway location of First National Bank of Middle Tennessee. Her duties will include being the branch manager and mortgage loan officer.
“We are extremely excited to have someone of Jewell’s experience and reputation at our bank,” van Vuuren said. “Jewell is a very well-rounded banker and the type of employee who associates very well with our core values. Having spent most of her career in this community, we feel her addition will make us a stronger bank.”
“We plan to use her skills in several different areas. She will be overseeing the branch operations and will also continue to focus on the origination of home mortgages, as she has in the past. We believe with her addition to FNB Mortgage the bank will grow this department to being the premier mortgage lender in Middle Tennessee.”
 Walker is a member of McMinnville’s Evening Exchange Club and Tennessee Business and Professional Women. She also served two terms as chairman of the Board of the McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce and is an avid volunteer for Relay for Life, March of Dimes and The American Heart Association.
“I am looking forward to becoming a part of a financial institution with such a rich history in McMinnville and Warren County and whose focus is customer satisfaction and improving the overall customer experience,” Walker said.
Walker can be reached at 473-4402 or at jwalker@fnbfg.com.

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