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Craven injured in Yager Road crash
Yager Road wreckBEST
Lisa Hobbs photo Drowsy driving is being blamed for a single-vehicle crash that injured local resident Casey Craven on Wednesday. Witnesses say she crawled from the wreckage after her car flipped several times.

A local resident was injured Wednesday afternoon when her vehicle left the road, went airborne, hit a utility pole, and struck a magnolia tree.

Casey Craven, 32, stated to witnesses and McMinnville Police Department officers the wreck was a result of falling asleep at the wheel. She was traveling outbound on Yager Road in a white Ford Fusion in the area of Union Hill Road.

Darlene Reed, a witness at the scene, saw the accident unfold. 

“I walked outside and the next thing I knew a car hit the ditch then hit the concrete culvert,” said Reed. “That made her car flip three times. After the third time, she hit the tree and that threw her car airborne into the utility pole, flipping one more time. She landed right-side up, and I screamed for someone to call 911 when she crawled out of the driver-side door. She started to walk around until she sat down by her car on the ground.”

Craven was examined by EMS personnel at the scene. After examining her injuries, the decision was made not to call life flight. She was transported by ambulance to Saint Thomas River Park Hospital.

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