School started last week for thousands of local students, including elementary students at Battle Academy – pictured here at Honey Seed – as part of Tarah Kemp's outstanding Cooking Up Learning courses.

Summer is one of the great human experiences. Most adults, though, don't get summer vacations. Did you? Do animals? Fish don't. No, fish don't.

They're always in school.

(Here all night, folks.)

Earlier this month, Food as a Verb spoke with Kristen Nauss, director of school nutrition for Hamilton County schools.

Each day, she's responsible for feeding nearly 2,800 teachers and 44,500 students.

We're discussing ways regional farmers can partner with local schools. If we have all these small farmers producing vegetables, fruit, meat and eggs, why can't we have our students enjoying them?

The biggest need/challenge? Infrastructure. Will explain more in an upcoming story.

In the meantime, Nauss let us peer behind the curtain of all that's involved in feeding the fourth largest school district in the state.

1. We served 6,205,071 meals last year (breakfast, lunch, snacks).
2. Our total budget is $27.7 million per year, but after paying for labor, cleaning supplies, equipment repair, etc., we’re left with $1.94 per meal for food.
3. 29,995 (68.3%) students receive free or reduced price meals.
4. 48 of our schools participate in the Community Eligibility Provision, allowing all students to eat free in schools with a high economically disadvantaged population. The federal government reimburses us for all meals that students eat in those schools.
5. School Nutrition employs 485 staff.
6. We have a strong focus on training and professional development. Our staff logged 4,802 hours of training last year.
7. We regularly source food from 16 suppliers. Each school receives eight or more deliveries each week. Multiplied by 70 schools – it’s a lot of invoices to keep up with!
8. Students consumed 4,218,850 cartons of milk last year.
9. We ordered 243,760 pounds of fresh apples last year. 70,000 of these apples were sourced from Pikeville, TN.
10. The USDA limits the calories, saturated fat, and sodium in our meals, so each meal is planned by a Registered Dietitian. At HCS, the average lunch contains 8.5% of the calories from saturated fat, which is below the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendation of <10%.
11. Nine schools participate in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, a federal program for low income schools to expose students to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as an in-school snack. We received $214,225 grant funding for this program last year. Student favorites are fresh pineapple, cucumber, and any berry!

A huge thanks to Kristen and her entire staff.

• Alex is tightening the lug nuts on our new website. Expected launch? Next week. Get ready. It's elegant, clean, so very attractive. We are head over heels. Hope you love it as much as we do.

But ... need a little help. We're wanting to rename the Wednesday post, which is always more informal and conversational – farmers' markets, announcements, bad dad-jokes – than Sunday's feature. Almost like an appetizer to the Sunday main meal.

Any suggestions on what to call the Wednesday newsletter?

Something graceful, classy, enjoyable. Tough, but flexible. Funny, but not pushy. Part Simone, part Paris Snoop.

Email us your ideas. (david@foodasaverb.com or sarah@foodasaverb.com) If we choose yours, we'll send you a free Food as a Verb t-shirt and hat.

• Nosh-a-Nooga – Chattanooga's first Jewish Food Festival – starts Sunday, from noon to 2pm at the Waterhouse Pavilion, 800 Market Street.

Brisket sliders. Matzo ball soup. Rugalach. Challah, the centerpiece of the weekly Shabbat table.

"In medieval times, challah was a plain, simple bread. Braiding it began in 15th century Austria and Southern Germany, with Jewish housewives following their non-Jewish counterparts, who plaited the loaves they baked on Sundays," the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga said in a statement. "Jews who came to the U.S. for a better life discovered an abundance of new and inexpensive ingredients like eggs, sugar, and poppy seeds. Adding sugar created a much sweeter challah."

Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, the event – open to the public – combines history with conversation (cooks and bakers will be there) with traditional Jewish food.

Like knish.

"Around the turn of the 20th century, a wave of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe arrived in America with hope for freedom from persecution and armed with recipes from their motherlands. Called 'knysh' by the Ukrainians and 'knysz' by the Poles, this simple spherical dough pocket came to be known by its Yiddish derivative, knish, and in 1910, it officially went mainstream when the first knish bakery opened in New York City," the Federation said. "Comprising a softball-size lump of dough that may be baked or deep-fried, a knish is traditionally packed with mashed potatoes or kasha (buckwheat grains)."

Tickets are available at www.jewishchattanooga.com or at the door. For more info, call 423-493-0270.

• Finally, a few words about Brother Moses Freeman, who died August 3, one day after turning 86.

"Moses was a Christian Man of God, a Husband, Son, Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Uncle, Teacher, Storyteller, Civil Rights Leader, and Mentor," his obituary read.

The last time I saw him, we were standing on the south side of the Walnut Street Bridge at the wintertime memorial for Ed Johnson, Noah Parden, Styles Hutchins. It was Chicago-cold outside, but he seemed so warm. So much light in that aging body.

His body? He put it on the line throughout his life, participating in multiple sit-in's that broke down segregated Chattanooga, including its restaurants.

Peggy Douglas and I sat with him last year as part of her brilliantly powerful Unmasking event. Freeman estimated he helped integrate some 30 Chattanooga businesses in his life.

Can you imagine? Thirty?

Freeman, and others from Howard High, refused to accept racism and the status quo, taking the spiritual high road through nonviolent action. Such courage is the lifeblood of any lasting city.

Today, Chattanooga's restaurants are integrated, often diverse. It took Freeman and others to make this a reality, reminding us: food is more than just food. The Beloved Community always involves a dinner table.

In his tribute, Eric Atkins recalled proverbs that Freeman embodied.

One hand is never enough to lift a heavy load.

A person is a person because of other people.

Chattanooga is Chattanooga partly because of Brother Freeman and his selfless, ongoing love and devotion. May we join hands together and continue lifting the heavy loads of life.

All photography by Sarah Unger (sarah@foodasaverb.com)

All design by Alex DeHart

All words by David Cook (david@foodasaverb.com)

Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in sponsorship or advertising opportunities? Email us: david@foodasaverb.com and sarah@foodasaverb.com

This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.