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Davis receives Bower Youth Award
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Erica Davis is fighting for the environmental and financial rights of communities in Tennessee.

Erica Davis is fighting for the environmental and financial rights of communities in Tennessee. Her efforts earned her the 2016 Bower Youth Award for researching, writing and obtaining sponsorship for a bill to reform oil and natural gas severance taxes in Tennessee.
“Receiving the Bower Youth Award is a huge honor,” she said. “I am very grateful for the opportunity to worth with and inspire others from across the nation to find organizations and opportunities to help the planet and make a difference in our communities.”
Six young leaders are selected every year to receive Brower Youth Awards for making strides in the environmental movement. From taxing oil and gas companies, to turning recycled plastic into material for 3D printing, recipients are combining cutting-edge innovation with urgent solutions to the environmental crises the communities face. Award winners demonstrate excellent leadership as well as a commitment to the communities their work serves.
In Tennessee, severance taxes are the only legislative means to ensure that part of the wealth associated with oil and gas production remains in-state. Davis’s bill sought to raise these taxes and change the way the tax revenue is distributed.
The bill, sponsored by state senator Ken Yager and Rep. Dennis Powers, reallocates all oil and gas severance tax revenue to the county back to the county in which the resources were taken. Currently, a county would receive only one-third of revenue with the state getting the other two-thirds.
While fracking companies make huge dividends on the cheap energy alternative and capitalize on the struggling coal business and the state receives the majority of the severance taxes, the community’s monetary benefit is minimal and the environmental impact has been well documented, as it has been known to pollute groundwater and cause seismic activity. 
Davis’s bill sought to correct that injustice through legislation.
“There’s a lot of not only resource wealth, but a lot of monetary wealth leaving these communities. And it’s the same communities that have been plagued by the coal industries historically,” Davis said of fracking in Tennessee.
While Davis lobbied strongly to help raise bipartisan support for the bill. Unfortunately, it was dropped from the 2015-2016 docket. Davis intends to revive the bill in the next legislative session.
As recipient of the Brower Youth Award, she will receive $3,000 in prize money and an all-expense paid trip to San Francisco to attend the 17th annual Brower Youth Awards convention on Oct. 18.
“I am also excited to be representing Tennessee, because I truly love my home and want to help make it the best it can be,” said Davis.
Davis is currently pursuing her law degree at the University of Tennessee College of Law and resides in Knoxville. She is the daughter of Donna and Matt Crim of Lafayette, and Eric and Kelly Davis of Warren County, and the granddaughter of Billy and Sandra Nunley, Jimmy and Janice Crim, and Don and Alda Bandy, all of Warren County.

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