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WCSS Nutrition Services Director Abby Rowland (left) and WCHS Senior Joey Cloer were recently recognized for their outstanding work in the Community Based Instruction program. Rowland received the Carter Cruce Business Partnership award and Cloer received the Carter Cruce Worksite Achievement Award. These honors are named after former student Carter Cruce whose work in the program inspired the award. (Submitted Photo)
Nutrition Director Abby Rowland gave an early update on school nutrition bids at the Board of Education meeting on May 24.
“Normally we don’t talk about school nutrition bids until July, that’s when we come all together to you to ask you to approve of it. But there’s been some neighboring county newspaper articles, and some information out there that I just want to address with you,” said Rowland.
Rowland went on to say that her department has had a very hard time obtaining a food distributor for the 2022-23 school year. “A lot of food distributors are getting out of the K-12 business, the margins just frankly are better in retail. It has nothing to do with whether or not they like children, it’s really not even political ... it’s really a corporate business decision. They make more money in retail than they do in schools. They have the very same issues that all of us are seeing. They are lacking truck drivers, diesel fuels through the roof, and supply chain has just hit us as hard as it’s hit anyone else,” said Rowland.
Rowland has been working on finding a supplier for the new school year since January. They put out two separate bids and received no takers on either bid. “We have scoured the nation,” said Rowland. “if you’ve got a truck; if there’s a name on the truck we’ve called it.” Because of these difficulties, the counties Barrow, Habersham, Rabun, Towns, Union, White, and Stephens have banded together to put out a group bid and purchase their food together. They have found a company called Gold Star Foods to partner with. They are a nationwide company that has in been in business for over 30 years and they only provide food to K-12 school systems. Gold Star Foods is building a warehouse in Piedmont, South Carolina which will only be about an hour away from White County schools.
A contract was signed with Gold Star Foods on May 12. Rowland is concerned that there has been false information spread and wants to assure the board members and citizens that they are going to feed students no matter what. “I wanted to assure you from my voice, we have a plan. We had a plan A, B, C, and D if we hadn’t had a distributor,” said Rowland.
Rowland said they are also partnering with the Georgia Mountain Food Bank in Clayton. They will receive some direct ship items from manufacturers and White County schools, that will be delivered to the backpack buddies program. “Anything we pay them for their storage and delivery goes right back into the food bank, back into our community, that’s looking like it’s going to be a really cool partnership,” said Rowland.
Rowland says that Federal Guidelines have to be met but they will not stop any student from being fed. “USDA does change their guidelines, they change them frequently, they’re based on the dietary guidelines for Americans. Sometimes we don’t like the guidelines, sometimes we wish they wouldn’t be as restrictive. But just so you know in White County, we have always worked through that process. We find a way to put food out there and kids will eat. We are feeding more kids than we ever have and they are eating more... we are their source of food security right now...All they need to know is when they hit the door in August, we got their back and we’re feeding them,” said Rowland.