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Eastside cafeteria to get fresh look
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Eastside School officials want to have an upgraded cafeteria with booths like the one unveiled at Irving College this year.

Lunchtime at Eastside School will soon take on a new look as the Board of Education has given the nod to upgrading the facility’s cafeteria.
“It will be like Irving College,” said director of nutrition Dr. Sandy Dawes, pointing to the wildly popular design used at the recently upgraded Irving College School. “The difference is that it will reflect Eastside and the community in its décor.”
The School Board authorized $81,353 to be used out of the food service budget to pay for the upgrades. Like Irving College, the dining area will include booths, bistro seating with tall tables, and art on the walls, making it look more like a restaurant than a school cafeteria.
“Some kids don’t get to go to a nice restaurant so this is like one,” Dawes said. “Our goal is to make it as nice as it can be for the kids.”
Dawes said the feedback was immediate from Irving College, from both students and parents.
“They said the food even tasted better,” Dawes told board members. “It was the same food.”
Along with making dining nicer at Eastside, the plan will also increase seating capacity by about 20 seats. The walls will also be upgraded with art and motivational phrases. While bulldogs will be included in the art, since the bulldog is Eastside’s mascot, Dawes said the lunchroom will not be oversaturated with them.
“It should be a place where students can go and reflect and enjoy their meal,” she said. “They don’t necessarily need sports all the time.”
Dawes laid out the design plan for the School Board, which voted unanimously to authorize the Eastside project.

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