Fighting Illiteracy in Mississippi: Kids are the focus of efforts to raise literacy...
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Monday, December 31, 2012
2013 BBVA Compass Bowl Schedule of Events
2013 BBVA Compass Bowl Schedule of Events: All times listed in central time and subject to change...
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New Year’s Reflections
New Year’s Reflections: Cory T. Wilson is a Moss Point native and Madison attorney with Heidelberg...
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#WhereInOxford was this photo taken? http://on.fb.me/TZPYPr
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John Cofield’s Oxford & Ole Miss – Motee Daniels
Motee Daniels led a colorful life to say the least. A Lafayette county native, Motee owned several businesses, including a general store and a road house juke joint. But perhaps he is best known for being William Faulkner’s bootlegger and town character.
Daniels once ran for county coroner with the campaign slogan that he was the same, coming or going. Motee delighted in telling his stories to students and “Faulknerians”, visitors to Oxford he referred to as “foreigners.”
A great number of William Faulkner’s characters in his fictional Yoknapatawpha Country resemble Motee Daniels.
“In Mississippi, how do you get rid of crabgrass? You pour whiskey on it and the Baptist’ll eat it.” –Motee Daniels
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Dr. Tichener’s
Dr. Tichener’s: The first bottle of Dr. Tichener’s Antiseptic was produced in Liberty,...
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Dr. Tichener’s
Excerpted by permission of The Nautilus Publishing Company from 501 Little-Known Facts, Obscure Trivia, World Records & Historical Minutia from the State of Mississippi
For more Mississippi facts, and for other titles of interest, visit http://hottytoddybooks.com/index.html. All proceeds from book sales support scholarships at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.
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On Cooking Southern: New Year Fortune
On Cooking Southern: New Year Fortune: Eating your way to a new start By Laurie...
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Sunday, December 30, 2012
Cocktail Watch: The Man-Fashioned
Cocktail Watch: The Man-Fashioned: Snackbar winter drinks menu warms the soul By Tad...
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Cocktail Watch: The Man-Fashioned
Snackbar winter drinks menu warms the soul
By Tad Wilkes, Nightlife & Lifestyles Editor
There is always much to recommend in Snackbar’s ever-changing cocktailcopia, and the winter drinks menu is no exception. Case in point: the Man-Fashioned, a happy hybrid of the Old-Fashioned and the Manhattan, with Snackbar personality.
The base is Old Weller Antique, a high-proof “wheated” bourbon, which is married with Dolin Rouge Vermouth, Cherry Heering liqueur, and Angostura and whiskey-barrel aged bitters, garnished with a flamed orange peel.
This cocktail, priced at $9, uses one large ice cube; it melts slowly and creates less dilution of the drink.
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Friday, December 28, 2012
Why Vardaman?
Why Vardaman?: Getting to the root of the Sweet Potato Capital of the World By Ellen...
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Have you heard of City Grocery’s Big Bad Pop-Ups? If you...
Have you heard of City Grocery’s Big Bad Pop-Ups? If you haven’t, you should check it out! Visit citygroceryonline.com http://on.fb.me/RlWFcp
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Why Vardaman?
Getting to the root of the Sweet Potato Capital of the World
By Ellen Graves, Senior Journalism Major, Meek School of Journalism & New Media
You can’t see it, but there is a fingerprint on every sweet potato grown in Vardaman, Mississippi. It’s from a worker who has labored on a hot, humid day in a field filled with thousands of sweet potatoes.
Vardaman’s foundation is built on sweet potatoes, and the farming families depend on it for their livelihood. This small farming town is home to a total of 104 farming operations and 25 packing sheds. Benny Graves, executive director of the Mississippi Sweet Potato Council (who happens to be my father), has worked with Vardaman’s sweet potato industry for more than 30 years.
Hard Work, Sweet Business
“It’s a hard-working, hard-scrabble town,” he says. “Growing sweet potatoes and producing this food crop is hard work, and these people are not scared of hard work.”
The first sweet potato farmers arrived in Vardaman in 1910 and created farming operations that have been passed down from generation to generation.
“Well my family had always been farmers, and I really enjoyed it as I was growing up and working,” says Tim Edmondson of Edmondson Farms, who has lived in Vardaman his entire life.“The bug was there, and I always wanted to farm.”
The Vardaman sweet potato industry produces up 80 percent of the 22,000 acres of sweet potatoes grown in Mississippi. The United States produces about 110,000 acres a year. In 2011, the Mississippi sweet potato industry accounted for $78 million of Mississippi’s total $7 billion agriculture revenue.
“This is one of those crops that when you are growing, you are creating wealth that’s coming from Mother Nature’s sunshine, water, and good soil,” Graves says.
Why Vardaman?
Several factors go into making Vardaman a good fit for the sweet potato.
“We have great soil, and we have people that know how to grow sweet potatoes,” Graves says. “This knowledge is not gained in a book or the university that teaches you how to grow sweet potatoes. You gain this knowledge from experience and from generations that have done it before you.”
“You know, I’ve had some friends in North Carolina that’ve been down here and they’ve actually gotten the soil in jars and carried it back to North Carolina State University to try and see what’s in our soil that makes the potatoes look like they do. And you know, they just can’t figure it out,” Edmondson says.
Sweet Science
The sweet potato season starts in March and ends with harvesting in the first week of November.
“Sweet potatoes are a vegetatively propagated produce item,” Graves explains. “That means they don’t have any true seed, so you have to go to the mother plant that was developed at a research facility and get your plant material from them.”
The process begins by planting the best seed potatoes in March and allowing them to grow for six weeks until plants are produced. After the plants reach a height of 10 inches, they are cut and planted in the field during May and June.
Each plant grows four to seven sweet potatoes and 13,000 plants can be planted to an acre. Farmers must go back to seed labs like the one at Louisiana State University every three or four years for certified seed stock.“If you’re not careful, you grow your own potatoes and have them cycle over and over for three or four years, they will mutate and it won’t be as tasty or pretty shaped,” Graves says.
Edmondson typically grows 2,800 acres of sweet potatoes and operates a packing shed that sees about 60 million pounds of potatoes come through a year.
One of the major concerns each farmer faces is how the weather will affect the crop.
“Mother Nature controls everything that we do, and we just know that going in,” Edmondson says. “You learn to manage your money real well. When the good years come, you stick it back and hold it for the bad ones because you know it’s coming.”
Graves also shares the same concern about the weather but notes that farmers do their best to minimize disaster.
“We try to maximize our chances of making a good crop, but we are always battling the weather,” Graves says. “You don’t plant all your crop in just one place, because one location may not get a rain. If you plant it in three locations, spread it out, you may have a chance.“
Technology’s Role Grows
Farmers not only work during planting season but all year selling and transporting their crops to customers.
“Many of the growers are also their own broker. They do it all—grow and sell and manage the money,” Graves says.
“It’s more of a business, a technology-based business,” Edmondson says. “We all have smart phones, computer screens, iPads. We’re working on those things as much as we’re driving a tractor.”
Technology has become more integrated with the farming industry and farmers are beginning to understand its benefits.
“We have temperature-controlled storage now, and that’s a big change. We are able to store sweet potatoes, high quality sweet potatoes year ’round that allows us a much larger marketing time,” Graves says.Also, farmers are using global positioning technology to calculate the exact amount of potatoes they can get from the field.
“You have some that are the early adopters. Some are later, old-fashioned, but you generally see the more successful ones are the ones that adopt technology first,” Graves says.
Frying High
Farmers in Vardaman sell sweet potatoes to the fresh market and foodservice sectors. Sweet potatoes have been gaining more popularity in the past couple of years, with more restaurants putting them on their menus.
“Sweet potato French fries have just taken off. Right now we are excited about Burger King being the first large chain that has added sweet potatoes to the menu,” Graves says.
With so many Vardaman farmers pushing the same product, competition is inevitable.
“There’s only so many customers that buy sweet potatoes in the country. We’re all gonna run into each other sooner or later,” Edmondson says.
“They compete on one hand, but if someone needs some help they will be the first one to lend a hand,” Graves says. “Most of the time we just try to sell more sweet potatoes on the plate instead of fighting each other and try to build this thing.”
Hands in the Soil
Although technology has provided several advantages for the farmer, the sweet potato industry is not one that is highly mechanized. Often farmers have to hire non-immigrant Hispanic workers from Mexico through the H-2A program to have a workforce large enough to use during the growing season.
“The guys come in on the visa program and work X amount of hours, X amount of months. They work and they go back,” Edmondson says. “Everything is offered equally to an American citizen just as it is a Hispanic. It’s just very hard manual labor, and most people do not want to do it.”
“There is not a machine that takes it from the ground and puts it in the box. Somebody has to place that potato with their hands into that box,” Graves says. “So there are multiple levels where someone, basic labor, is needed to move the potatoes.”
At times Graves and Edmondson think the farming industry is under-appreciated.
“We don’t get a lot of glory,” Graves says. “It’s not a glitzy crop. It’s a sweet potato, a basic comfort food that’s not gonna be like a fancy strawberry.” However, events such as the annual Sweet Potato Festival are held each year in Vardaman during the first weekend in November to promote the sweet potato.
“It started back in the days of governor Bill Waller, when they designated Vardaman as the ‘Sweet Potato Capital of the World’ and started the festival to celebrate the end of the harvest,” Graves says.
“My family has always come over to the Sweet Potato Festival. It’s kinda been a traditional thing we do every year,” festival attendee Cortez Moss says. “So I drove on over to hang out and actually get some sweet potatoes to take back to Greenwood.”
For Edmondson, being his own boss and working with the land is his favorite part of being a sweet potato farmer.
“I love the outdoors … you kind of see God’s work in your farming from start to finish, the harvest, and it’s just something I love every year,” Edmondson says.Even on Edmondson’s toughest day of farming, he has his reasons for not giving up.
“Maybe my car payment and my mortgage payment,” he says with a laugh. “And maybe that I know tomorrow will be better. That’s about the only hope that you have.”
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Cooters to Cook at Rooster’s
Cooters to Cook at Rooster’s: Oxford metal band dusts off recipe for Soul Food and more,...
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Cooters to Cook at Rooster’s
The Cooters, from left: Neuter Cooter (Newt Rayburn); Judas Cooter (Mike Namarato); and Raw Cooter (Gentry Webb).
Oxford metal band dusts off recipe for Soul Food and more, Dec. 29
By Tad Wilkes, Nightlife & Lifestyles Editor
Blackeyed peas and raw riffs are on the musical menu Saturday night, December 29, at Rooster’s Blues House on the Oxford Square. Local metal maestros the Cooters will play two sets, including originals spanning the punk-metal group’s nearly 20-year existence, new songs, and some choice covers. One song they promise to break out of the vault is “Soul Food,” an old Cooters chestnut the band hasn’t played live in years (see video below).
The first set starts at 9 p.m. sharp.
Together since 1993, the Cooters lay claim to being Oxford’s longest-running band and one of the two longest-running metal bands in Mississippi. Neuter Cooter (Newt Rayburn, bass and vocals), Judas Cooter (Mike Namarato, drums), and Raw Cooter (Gentry Webb, guitar and vocals) all grew up in Oxford. Though various other members have joined the band for stings, the trio remains the core of the Cooters.
Rooster’s Blues House is located at 114 Courthouse Square in Oxford. (662) 236-7970
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Have you heard of City Grocery’s Big Bad Pop-Ups? If you...
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Mr. Sam’s ‘Chintzy’ Remark Comes Home to Roost
Mr. Sam’s ‘Chintzy’ Remark Comes Home to Roost: Joe Atkins is a veteran journalist and columnist who...
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One Last Gift for YAC
One Last Gift for YAC: Arts Council seeks even small donations to close out 2012 By...
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The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council has launched a year-end giving...
The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council has launched a year-end giving campaign designed to reach out to those 89,000 people who have attended events and are not members.
Wayne Andrews talks about how even small donations can help close out 2012 and help local arts programs in 2013, at HottyToddy.com: http://bit.ly/ZGJ701 http://on.fb.me/U6bSNq
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One Last Gift
Arts Council seeks even small donations to close out 2012
By Wayne Andrews, Director, Yoknapatawpha Arts Council
The rush of the holidays is slowly leaving us. The joy of just a few moments of quiet to reflect on the year and look forward to the New Year are what most of us relish now. It is often the time we think of those who we have lost during the past year and set our goals for the future. It is the possibilities to be found in the New Year which inspire hope, encourage dreams, and set plans in motion.
It is the renewed opportunity each New Year brings that entices resolutions. Included in the resolution are often to be a better person, make time for the family, and the larger vision to make a difference in the world. Just as we make resolutions so do businesses. Non-profit organizations set goals for the year hoping to inspire passion within the organization and to engage their supporters. The building blocks for those grand plans often start not in the New Year but in the old with end-of-the-year donation drives.
Tinseled in thoughtful statements about year-end tax benefits and the season of giving are the first steps to putting New Year’s resolutions into action. It is the opportunity to share the vision for the coming year and build support for coming projects. This year, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council (YAC) has launched a year-end giving campaign designed to reach out to those who have attended programs sponsored by the YAC.
YAC is supported by donors who become members of the council. The members receive benefit including admission to special events, discounts on classes, free programs, and advance notice of events. Programs supported by YAC reach more than 90,000 people each year in a county with a population of roughly 40,000—which means visitors, tourists, and residents from surrounding counties are attending programs and events sponsored by YAC. Instead of asking for funds from its 1,000 members who have already donated, YAC is reaching out to those 89,000 people who have attended events and are not members.
The impact of every person who has attended a YAC event donating $1 as part of the year-end drive would have a major impact on the ability of YAC to expand programs. A special YAC online fundraiser invites those who have enjoyed the programs to make a donation. Donors can contribute to the Community Art Grant Fund, which provides support to local art events, or to the Endowment Fund, which ensures long term support for YAC, or they can become members and support the annual operation of YAC.
We set a small goal of just $2,500 in our effort to reach out to new donors at the end of the year. Donations can be made online, by calling 662-236-6429, or by mail at YAC, P.O. Box 544, Oxford, MS 38655.
Happy New Year!
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Gay Soccer Player Finds Acceptance at Ole Miss
Gay Soccer Player Finds Acceptance at Ole Miss: Students in Dr. Mark K. Dolan’s media...
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Gay Soccer Player Finds Acceptance at Ole Miss
Multimedia Video by Adam Stanford, Meek School of Journalism and New Media
Students in Dr. Mark K. Dolan’s media history class this fall produced multimedia pieces focusing on those voices which are different from their own, voices seldom heard, but that are part of the University’s campus identity. The goal was to have students interview a person unlike themselves in some fundamental way and to give that person a voice through multimedia storytelling, creating their own first draft of history, as journalists before them, and with an eye towards diversity.
In this second of four multimedia posts by Journalism 301 media history students, Adam Stanford interviews Ole Miss soccer player Josh Bowles about his life on the Ole Miss campus as an openly gay student, athlete and fraternity member.
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MS First Pulitzer Prize
MS First Pulitzer Prize: The first Mississippian to win a Pulitzer Prize was Tennessee...
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MS First Pulitzer Prize
Excerpted by permission of The Nautilus Publishing Company from 501 Little-Known Facts, Obscure Trivia, World Records & Historical Minutia from the State of MississippiFor more Mississippi facts, and for other titles of interest, visit http://hottytoddybooks.com/index.html. All proceeds from book sales support scholarships at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.
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Bowl Pick’em Leaderboard
Bowl Pick’em Leaderboard: HottyToddy.com Bowl Pick’em Standings By David Collier is a junior...
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Panthers Running backs
Panthers Running backs: Scouting the Panthers: Running backs By David Collier is a...
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JOHN COFIELD’S ‘OXFORD & OLE MISS’ –– DEXTER McCLUSTER
He also had five catches for 45 yards for a total 229 all-purpose yards. McCluster was the obvious standout, the game’s offensive MVP for the second year in a row.
Earlier that season, Dexter McCluster set a new high-water mark in the SEC by becoming the first player in league history with more than 1,000 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards in one season. Dexter was also a part of probably the biggest single play Rebel fans have seen in quite a few years … that halfback pass against LSU.
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Panthers Running backs
Photo Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
Scouting the Panthers: Running backs
By David Collier is a junior broadcast major, Meek School of Journalism and New Media
dlcollie@go.olemiss.edu
Follow David on Twitter @DavidLCollier
On Wednesday, we took a look at the passing attack of the Pittsburgh Panthers, and nothing sets up the pass more than running the ball effectively.
The Panthers finished the regular season fifth in the Big East in rushing offense with 137.4 yards per game, so it will be pivotal for Ole Miss to make Pittsburgh one dimensional when the two programs clash in the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., on Jan. 5.
This is the fifth part of a seven-part series where I will break down each position for the Panthers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday leading up to the bowl game.
Running Backs
There’s no question who is the leader for Pittsburgh on the ground. Senior Ray Graham is a two-year starter for the Panthers and has played extensively all four years of his career.
Graham, who started all 12 games this year, has rushed for 1,042 yards and 11 touchdowns on 222 carries (4.7 avg.) this season , and that earned him a spot on the All-Big East first team for the second year in a row.
The 5-foot-9, 190-pounder is among the Big East’s best running backs, ranking fourth in both total rushing yards and rushing yards per game (86.8 avg).
Graham has 11 career 100-yard rushing games and ranks second all-time in school history in rushing yards with 3,271 and all-purpose yards with 4,943.
He is also a threat in the passing game. This year, Graham has 340 receiving yards on 36 catches with two touchdown.
Last season, Graham only played in eight games due to a right knee injury, but he still tallied 958 yards and nine touchdowns on 164 carries in his junior campaign.
His freshman and sophomore years saw him play the role of backup, and in his sophomore season, he started two games and totaled 922 yards and eight touchdowns for the year.
Graham is a proven veteran who likes to run between the tackles, so expect a lot of run blitzing from the Rebel defense.
Backing Graham up is Rushel Shell and Isaac Bennett.
Shell, a 6-foot, 215-pound freshman, serves as the primary backup and has played in 11 games this year, running for 562 yards and four touchdowns on 116 carries (4.8 avg).
Bennett has played in all 12 games this season, and the 5-foot-11, 205-pound sophomore has rushed for 141 yards on 29 carries (4.9 avg).
Shell and Bennett give the Panthers quality depth at running back, so containing Pittsburgh’s running attack will take a full-fledged effort for the Ole Miss defense.
Fullbacks
Sophomore Mark Giubilato (6-foot-2, 230-pound) and sophomore Adam Lazenga (6-foot, 235-pound)
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Congrats to our Christmas wreath Instagram contest...
Congrats to our Christmas wreath Instagram contest winner!
Thank you to all who contributed! We hope you’ll participate in our next Instagram contest. If you don’t yet, follow us on Instagram and join the fun! @hottytoddynews http://on.fb.me/V8ZRGr
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Making a Difference, One Volunteer at a Time
Making a Difference, One Volunteer at a Time: If her neighbor’s ox is in the ditch, RSVP...
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Making a Difference, One Volunteer at a Time
RSVP Volunteer Frances Smith, left, spends up to six days a week helping out her friends and neighbors in Oxford, Mississippi.
If her neighbor’s ox is in the ditch, RSVP volunteer Frances Smith will help get it out
By: Alex DeJoy, journalism major, Meek School of Journalism and New Media
abdejoy@go.olemiss.edu
Thank you notes, lists, and calendars pile up on the “to-do wall” of Frances Smith, a volunteer in the Oxford area. Carefully laid out on her table is a list of things that need to be done that day, and it seems like every hour of the day is perfectly planned.
“As long as I am able to stand, I will be volunteering,” Smith said. “I grew up out in the country, and that is what we do. If the neighbor’s ox is out in the ditch, we help them get it out.”
For a small woman, Smith has a big personality and an even bigger heart to go along with it. After total knee replacement two years ago, Smith has done nothing but become an even more active participant in the community and with the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program (RSVP).
For more than 39 years, Oxford’s RSVP program has been placing volunteers ages 55 and up across town on an as-needed basis. Along with volunteer opportunities and training, the program also offers supplemental insurance and monthly “lunch n’ learns” to thank volunteers.
Through the lunch n’ learns, volunteers have the opportunity to take day trips with the group and listen to speakers on various topics.
Jamie Briscoe, the bookkeeper and secretary for RSVP, said there are volunteer opportunities to suit many interests and time constraints. With 35 volunteer stations, they range from the hospital to the library to the Ford Center for people to choose from.
“We have a variety of volunteer programs, and we are constantly getting new things, along with one-time volunteer venues that we takes requests for,” Briscoe said.
Smith is one of RSVP’s most active volunteers and has been working with them throughout the last four years. “My family, we are volunteer people. I was raised to know that if you are willing and able you need to be providing, serving and helping,” Smith said.
According to the Web Site volunteeringinamerica.gov, Mississippi ranks 45 out of the 50 states with 23.6 percent of people volunteering. Those who do volunteer get a lot out of it, according to Briscoe.
“We have had many volunteers in the past who have said that we have changed their life. Because it just gets them up and it gets them going,” Briscoe said. “It’s amazing how busy they are even though they are retired.”
Smith says there is a good reason for Americans 55 and up to give up their time.
“If you sit down, you go down. Stay active. You’re gonna moan and groan sitting in that chair, so you might as well moan and groan helping somebody,” Smith said. “You just cannot sit down and do nothing. If I am in an organization, I am not going to be a chair warmer, I am going to be a doer.”
Smith volunteers up to six days per week.
“Frances is a real go-getter,” Briscoe said. “I know I can call her when I need a volunteer at the last minute and she is ready to go do whatever needs to be done.”
Memory Makers
Over the years, Smith has primarily devoted herself to Memory Makers, a day program for those who suffer from some form of dementia or early onset Alzheimer’s. Smith’s sister, who passed away four years ago, had dementia. Her brother-in-law also had Alzheimer’s. Both lived at Hermitage Gardens, an assisted-living facility in Oxford.
“When I saw the ad in the paper that they were going to have a public meeting to get Memory Makers started, I thought I think I’ll go and steal some of their ideas for crafts,” Smith said. “And I’ll take it down to Hermitage.”
Smith has been at Memory Makers since 2010, volunteering there two days a week. She assists with the set-up of meals and is there to make sure everything runs smoothly. Soon after the program began, Smith started making bibs for the patients out of towels and then progressed to sewing storage bags for people to hang on their walkers, all at her own expense.
“I quit smokin’, so I took my smokin’ money for walker bags,” Smith said.
Smith tries to sew at least one a day on the Singer sewing machine she purchased 40 years ago. Her dedication impresses her grandson John.
“Granny is busier than anyone I have ever met. This is actually the first time I have seen her sit down all week,” said John Smith, who moved in two years ago with his mother Anna to help out his grandmother when she had knee surgery.
In addition to Memory Makers, Smith also helps with Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Since acting is one of Smith’s passions, she has incorporated that into creating skits for the VFW.
Smith proudly displays her handmade costumes in her home. She has costumes that range from Little Red Riding Hood, to Cinderella, and even a little yellow polka dot bikini.
“I just like people. I am the clown of the group, I have fun. And If I can make somebody grin or laugh, it has made my day,” Smith said. “It’s just doin’ for other people. That’s the name of the game.”
To get involved with the RSVP Program in Oxford contact Jamie Briscoe or Arledia Bennett at 662-232-2377 or through e-mail at rsvp@dixie-net.com and also visit their office on 107 Courthouse Square in Oxford. And to get involved with Memory Makers call 662-234-3332 or email them at memory.makers@att.net.
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Eating Healthier in Mississippi Schools
Eating Healthier in Mississippi Schools: Despite its reputation, Mississippi is leading...
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#WhereInOxford are these sweet treats? Can you guess it?...
#WhereInOxford are these sweet treats? Can you guess it? http://on.fb.me/12S0IzS
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Eating Healthier in Mississippi Schools
By Kaitlin Howell, broadcast journalism major, Meek School of Journalism and New Media
kdhowell@go.olemiss.edu
Mississippi is well known for its obesity problem; it has the highest rates of obesity in the nation for both adults and children.
What few people know is that Mississippi is also one of the first states to try and improve the nutritional value of the meals children eat in schools.
“The rest of America is trying to catch up with Mississippi,” said Steve Stockton, child nutrition director for the Amory School District. “We’ve noticed we’ve had an obesity issue for years, and we’ve been addressing it and have been ahead of the game and have been making some differences.”
Mississippi schools were quick to take advantage of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010. The federal law is helping poverty stricken areas in Mississippi get the money they need to serve nutritional meals to students.
“There’s been tremendous improvement across the board in all schools. The more rural schools with smaller discretionary monies have sometimes struggled,” said Teresa Carithers, a hospitality management and nutrition professor at the University of Mississippi.
“Schools are now seeing an increase in the variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as decreasing in the amount of fried foods served to students.”The Amory schools are feeling the impact of the program.
“In the last year, we’ve gone to whole wheat, whole grain, low fat, and no salt. It’s a major change,” said Rita Vaughan, cafeteria manager at Amory High School (AHS).
However, as anyone who has ever tried to feed a child knows, it’s one thing to offer healthy food and another to get the child to eat it.
“When you start having to do those whole wheat products on everything, it becomes a little bit more difficult. The children do resist whole wheat hamburger buns and things like that,” said Stockton.
“I like the food the way it tasted last year. This year, it doesn’t taste quite as good,” said John Mark Howell, a student at AHS. Many other students feel the same way, but there are some who don’t have a problem with the changes.
“I think for the most part, they’re pretty good. There’s one day every once in a while when I don’t like anything they’re serving,” said Austin Roberts, another student at AHS.
One challenge created by the new, low-fat focus is meeting the calorie requirement of the HHFKA. Stockton thinks the requirement may have actually made it tougher to give the students nutritious meals.
“What we’ve seen in our menu planning is that we had far healthier menus before the new requirements than we do now because we have to add calories,” said Stockton.
Carithers, on the other hand, says it’s more important to focus the nutrition in those calories, and she believes that school menus are healthier than ever.
“The new meal pattern enhances the healthier options for students and that’s important,” said Carithers.
Back Pack Program
The need for school lunches to be nutritious is even more critical when the student population is poor, as it is in many parts of the state. In the Amory school district, for example, 60 percent of the students are on free or reduced meal plans. For some of those students, school may be the only place that they have an option to eat healthy food.
“On the weekends, they go home and many of them are not going to have a good wholesome meal until they come back on Monday. So, with that in mind, we have started a Back Pack Program,” said Stockton.
During recess, the back packs of participating students are filled with food to help feed them through the weekend. Carithers says programs like these are important.
“Those types of programs that are partnered with the school food service units are actually very valuable in states like Mississippi where we do have pockets of poverty still existing,” Carithers said.
School lunches have long been the subject of jokes and jeers from students, but they’re now playing a big role in helping to grow healthier kids in Mississippi.
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Eating Healthier in Mississippi Schools
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