GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4 | FEATURES A6 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A9, 11 | HEALTH & LIFESTYLES SECTION B
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VOL. 5, NO. 38
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
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Not your parents’ lunch School lunch menu is tastier, healthier By Wendy Smith
Pink Saturday Good deals for a good cause. It’s Pink Saturday all day Sept. 24 at The Shops at Franklin Square. See details on page A-14
Seen any good flicks lately? There are 8 million stories in the Naked County ready for the silver screen. “Dirty Timmy” looks to be a sure fire hit. Take a look at the preview if you feel lucky. See Editor’s Corner on page A-4
FEATURED COLUMNIST JAKE MABE
Speaking of the movies … Jake Mabe sits down with film buff Don Calhoun to talk about the movie serials of yesteryear. See page A-6
If you think Knox County school cafeterias serve the same fare as 30 years ago, think again. “I tell parents, this is not the same school lunch we ate,” says Jon Dickl, director of school nutrition. “It’s not the same as even three years ago.” Since Dickl began working with the county in August of 2010, there have been major changes to the menu as well as the way several schools prepare their food. Some adjustments were driven by federal mandates, but others were Dickl’s ideas. “My perspective has changed. Eight or nine years ago, I’d have said, ‘I’ll change when you make me change.’ Today, I’d rather be one of the innovators,” he says. Dickl toured 84 school cafeterias in Knox County to get an overview of menus, presentation, equipment and personnel. While the schools were serving healthy meals that met current criteria, he felt too many canned goods were being served. He also wanted to make sure menus reflected the county’s diverse population. Some canned food was replaced when the county began a farmto-school program in the spring. Fresh strawberries, purchased from local farms, made their way to students’ plates shortly after being harvested. Schools are serving local raspberries and blackberries this year, and Dickl plans to offer local orange cauliflower, aka “Voliflower,” on Fridays in conjunction with UT games. He has also received grants that allow 12 elementary schools that serve at-risk students to provide a daily snack of fresh fruits and veggies.
West Hills Elementary School 5th graders Jalaya Jones, Haley Justice and Cle’shaya Nelson enjoy Knox County’s improved school lunches last Thursday, when the menu featured Hispanic Heritage selections. Photo by Wendy Smith While the school lunch program spent $600,000 on produce last year, $1.2 million will go toward fruit and vegetables this year, Dickl says. Creative thinking has enabled him to serve more ethnic food. The county receives USDA commodity dollars based on the number of meals served, and those funds have typically been spent on canned and prepared foods. But Dickl is using the allotment to purchase raw meat, then having it processed to be used in healthy entrees like chicken teriyaki and carne guisada. The result is low-fat, restaurant-quality food with fewer additives. As of the beginning of this
City customer Bill McKee. In order to qualify, a bank customer needed to establish a direct deposit or electronic payAristedis “Ari” Tampasis is the local winner ment and have a debit card. Each time the cusof “5,000 Reasons to Bank with Us,” sponsored tomer used their debit card, their name was entered in the drawing. by American Trust Bank of East Tennessee. American Trust is a locally owned comBanker Linda Saults said Tampasis had been her customer for 10 years. “I’m very hap- munity bank that offers a full range of bankpy he won $5,000.” Other winners include La- ing services. Info: www.atbanktn.com or Follette customer Regina Ridenour and Lenoir 824-5700.
American Trust presents gift to contest winner
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meeting government standards is a fine line to walk. Some students lament the loss of French fries, which are now available only on Fridays or not at all, depending on the school. But they probably don’t notice that food is flavored with Butter Buds rather than butter or that their milk no longer contains high fructose corn syrup. Dickl narrowly avoided a rebellion when he tried to take biscuits and gravy off the breakfast menu. “I thought the high school students were going to storm the Andrew Johnson building with axes and pitchforks!” Fortunately, he found a happy medium with fat-free country gravy.
Ari wins $5K
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school year, several cafeterias have been converted from satellite sites, which serve food prepared at another school, to independent sites. West Hills Elementary is one of seven schools that had upgrades to its kitchen this summer. It is now less reliant on Bearden High School, which previously prepared its entrees and sent them over in trucks. It’s a good feeling for the cafeteria to operate independently, says West Hills principal Suzanne Oliver. “It feels like things are fresher, and we don’t run out of food. We know that we have exactly what we need for our children.” Pleasing parents and kids and
Ari Tampasis and his banker Linda Saults
Walking by faith Seats still available for Compassion Coalition fundraiser tomorrow
10512 Lexington Dr., Ste. 500 37932 (865) 218-WEST (9378) news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Larry Van Guilder lvgknox@mindspring.com ADVERTISING SALES Darlene Hacker hackerd@ShopperNewsNow.com Debbie Moss mossd@ShopperNewsNow.com Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at 10512 Lexington Drive, Suite 500, Knoxville, TN, and distributed to 24,267 homes in Bearden.
By Natalie Lester As he sits in his breakfast nook with his Bible each morning, Grant Standefer watches the birds eat out of the feeder on his back porch. He is reminded of Matthew 6:26-27 – “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ” “I am constantly remind-
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ed that God will take care of me, just like he takes care of them,” said Standefer, executive director of Compassion Coalition. Compassion Coalition sponsors numerous ministries throughout Knoxville, including a furniture ministry on Saturdays where crews deliver donated furniture to recently housed formerly homeless men Compassion Coalition volunteer Char Taylor and clearing house and women, and a clearing director Gina Whitmore connect a caller with a church family house staffed by volunteers using their map of church partners all across Knox County. Photo which connects the needy by N. Lester
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with various church families all over the county. “We don’t want it to be a one hot meal thing. We want to give them a body of believers to walk along with them,” Standefer said. The Coalition also partners with Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols to coordinate juvenile offenders who can do their community service hours alongside church members. “The recurrence rate for participants in the Restorative Justice program is less than 10 percent,” Standefer said. “The national average is more than 60 percent.”
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