Today, my grandmother’s hometown of Blue Ridge is surrounded by million-dollar vacation homes, its downtown sidewalks lined with art galleries and outfitters selling $6,000 bamboo fly rods. The economic disparity between visitors and full-time residents is huge. Fannin County Schools qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows free meals for all – at least for now.
Martha Williams, who works as the director of nutrition and wellness in the Fannin County School District, grew up here and originally returned to teach math. But a cafeteria lunch lady inspired Williams to work in school nutrition when she pulled the teacher aside and pointed to a student who looked disheveled and was wearing the same clothes. Williams recognized the insights that could be gained from the service line and how work went from feeding children to providing stability, routine and community care.
Williams points to another inspiration, Gigi Thomas, 63, who has worked in school food service for more than two decades. One of her duties these days is serving cookies housed in an antique warmer that “probably came on the Mayflower,” Thomas says with a laugh. She gives students freshly baked cookies on napkins. “I see these kids every day,” she says. “Some of them like chocolate chip cookies, others like sugar cookies.” “It tickles them so much that I remember what they get.”
In 2023, their cookies were featured in the graduation video of high school seniors. “If you don’t have cookies, those kids are doomed,” says Thomas. “All you have to do is take care of the kids.”
In West Tennessee, Sieber-Garland says she sometimes feels like she has 1,400 children of her own. If no one shows up for a student on Grandparents Day, she gets ready. And she loves approaching students outside school, where they are excited to say, “That’s my lunch lady!” Alumni sometimes share photos of their children. “They’re so special. Every single one of them.”
During her 22 years in business, Sieber-Garland has served her mother’s poppyseed chicken recipe as well as old favorites like chicken tetrazini and spaghetti. “I’ve always said, i wish this was their cafeI can’t control what happens at night, But for two-thirds or three-quarters of the day, I can, And I want them to be fed and kept happy, well done and blessed, They bless me,”
She tells of a student who kept trying to save her food to take home, because she had nothing to eat there. Sieber-Garland and her staff found a way to provide him with a second meal for the evening. “I even had a parent come to me and tell me not to let their child eat anything. And I feel like, No madam. If she asks for food in my line, I will feed her.,
Sieber-Garland says there are people who donate every year to help pay off lunch dues that have not been paid. Recently, they created a “share table” on a red cart with donated Yeti coolers that helps teach children about reducing food waste. This is where students can leave unopened milk or whole food that they don’t want their classmates to enjoy. She is also known to cover lunch out of her own pocket, and her staff also collects. “They will be fed,” she says. “We will find a way.”
I hear in those words my grandmother’s skill and care and a guiding phrase she taught my father: to stand up for what you believe in.
As Grandma would say, “You take your share.”