Today, my grandmother’s town 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 vast. Fannin County schools qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows free meals for all — at least for now.
Martha Williams, who works as director of nutrition and wellness in 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 out a student who seemed disheveled and kept wearing the same clothes. Williams recognized the insights that can be gleaned from the serving line and how the work goes beyond keeping kids fed 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. These days one of her duties is serving cookies, kept in an ancient warmer that “probably came over on the Mayflower,” Thomas says with a laugh. She hands students freshly baked cookies on napkins. “I see these kids every day,” she says. Some of them like chocolate chip cookies, others prefer sugar cookies. “It tickles them to death that I kind of remember what they get.”
In 2023, her cookies were featured in the high school seniors’ graduation video. “If you don’t have the cookies, those kids are devastated,” Thomas says. “That’s all you wanna do is take care of the kids.”
Over in West Tennessee, Seiber-Garland says she sometimes feels like she has 1,400 kids of her own. If no one shows up for a student on grandparents’ day, she fills in. And she loves running into students outside school, where they’re excited to say, “There’s my lunch lady!” Alumni sometimes share photos of their kids. “They’re so special. Every one of them.”
Over her 22 years in the business, Seiber-Garland has served her mother’s recipe for poppyseed chicken as well as old favorites like chicken tetrazzini and spaghetti. “I’ve always said, I want this to be their cafe. I can’t control what goes on at night. But for two-thirds or three-fourths of the day, I can. And I want them to be fed and happy, well, and blessed. They bless me.”
She tells of a student who kept trying to save her meal to carry home, because she didn’t have anything to eat there. Seiber-Garland and her staff found a way to provide her with a second meal for the evening. “I also had a parent come tell me to not let her child eat. And I’m like, No ma’am. If she asks to eat in my line, I’m gonna feed her.”
Seiber-Garland says there are people who donate every year to help pay off lunch balances that have remained unpaid. Recently, she created a “share table” on a red cart with a donated Yeti cooler that helps teach kids about reducing food waste. It’s where students can leave unopened milks or whole food that they don’t want for their classmates to enjoy. She’s also been known to cover lunches out of her own pocket, and her staff has taken up collections, too. “They’re gonna be fed,” she says. “We’ll find a way.”
I hear in those words the resourcefulness and care of my own grandmother and a guiding phrase she taught my father in standing up for what you believe.
As Granny would say, “You take your part.” ◊