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Newspaper wins award for 10th time
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Updated: Jul 14, 2012, 7:21 PM
Published: Jul 14, 2012, 8:21 PM

On the strength of six first-place awards, the Southern Standard received the General Excellence Award for the newspaper exhibiting the highest overall quality at the Tennessee Press Association banquet Friday in Nashville.
The Standard placed in nearly every category and won first-place honors for editorials, news reporting, spot news coverage, humor column, feature story, and promotion of newspapers.
The newspaper earned second place for make-up and appearance, education reporting, news photograph, and public service.
“It’s impressive to see the Standard compete against the best newspapers in the state and excel in such a way,” said publisher Patricia Zechman. “We are extremely happy with six first-place awards. We have a great staff of newsroom employees, including four who have worked here over 15 years, and that experience really shows with our finished product.”
Duane Sherrill won first place in news reporting for a series of stories he wrote on the 124 dogs seized from Wilma Jones in the Centertown community. The category allows up to 10 stories on any one topic.
James Clark won first place in spot news for a story he wrote on a fire at Lakeview Apartments where children had to leap for their lives from a second-story window. The category only allows one story to be submitted.
Clark also won first place in humor column for “At the tone, use your sick voice.” The column pertained to measures often taken when newspaper employees call in sick.
Clark won first in the group editorial category which allows any three editorials to be submitted from the calendar year. First place in editorial writing comes with a cash prize.
Charlie Johnson, who is no longer with the paper, won first place in the feature story category. The story was on the Roundhouse Street Gang, a group of boys who grew up in McMinnville over 50 years ago.
The newspaper earned first in promotion of newspapers for its Back to the ’60s Bash at the fairgrounds.
It’s the 10th time in 13 years the Standard has been honored as best paper in its circulation category.
Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Published: Apr 2, 2025, 11:31 PM

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