Executive Director Mary A. Hill

Today, child nutrition is being challenged as never before. Even as there are increasing demands for better, fresher and more nutritious (read: more expensive) meals, district foodservices are themselves faced with rising costs and flatlining revenues. In trying times such as this, it's good to have a foodservice director who knows her way around.

And that's what Jackson, MS, Public Schools is most fortunate to have in Mary Hill, executive director of the district's Food Service Department. With almost 30 years of experience in her post, Hill knows almost everything there is to know about both the program and the community it serves.

She is also a major industry figure who has helped set the policies and priorities of the School Nutrition Association (SNA), both as an influential local director and as a national officer. Four years ago, she served a term as president of the SNA, leading its efforts for more public funding and more effective regulation in Washington's corridors of power (for a video of Hill testifying before a Congressional committee in her capacity as SNA's president, go to video.food-management.com/video/School-Nutrition-Hearing-Mary-H;k-12-foodservice).

Efforts like that are especially critical for a school nutrition program like Jackson's, where 90 percent of the nearly 30,000 students qualify for free/reduced price meals under the federal School Breakfast and Lunch Program. It is in a district like this that public policy regarding child nutrition is felt most, both in terms of funding levels and in impact on real lives.

The high free/reduced ratio effectively limits Jackson's financial resources to what it can recoup from federal programs. For example, in the current school year, federal reimbursements will contribute an estimated $18.5 million of the program's $20.8 million budget. The rest comes from a combination of state supplementary funding, and whatever can be generated from student and adult cash sales, catering and preparing meals for few outside clients.

None of this is new to Hill. She grew up in Jackson and is a graduate of its public schools. It's where she first dreamed of making a career in home economics, a dream fortunately deferred when fate took a hand. After teaching for four years in Laurel, MS, following graduation from the University of Southern Mississippi, she wanted to return to her hometown, so she applied for an open teaching job there. But a deputy superintendent convinced her to take another open position instead: director of food service. That was in 1983 and “the rest is history,” Hill laughs. “I'm still waiting for that teaching job to open up.”

A PROGRAM THAT LIVES UP TO ITS NAME. With participation numbers close to 90% for lunch and 50% for breakfast, Jackson’s foodservice program fulfills an important mission of providing the vast majority its students nutritious meals on a daily basis.

An Accomplished History

You can tell a lot about the effectiveness of a school nutrition program from the participation counts, and at Jackson they are exemplary. The department serves around 26,000 school lunches a day in a district with less than 30,000 students. The daily breakfast count is 14,000. In addition, 25 of the district's 60 school sites offer an afternoon snack program that serves 1,600 each day on average.

“School is the only place where some of these children can depend on getting a good meal,” Hill says. “We want to make sure that meal is not only nutritious but appealing.”

Mission accomplished. As I tour through Jackson's school sites with Hill, I'm struck by the general attitude present in the cafeterias. For these kids, getting a good meal at school is serious business, and lunchtime is not simply a glorified recess as you see at some schools where participation is hostage to convenience and socializing trumps dining. Here, they line up eagerly for the day's fare.

The lines move briskly. Kids quickly gauge their choices (two entrée options for elementary, three for secondary, plus up to half a dozen sides), move along, check out and take their seats. While kids definitely want to sit with their friends and there's lots of lunchtime chatter, few seem like they'd rather talk than eat.

The lunchrooms are orderly. Teachers sit with students (per district policy) and generally purchase their meals in the cafeteria also. Hill encourages this, believing that youngsters will take their signals from the adult behavior they observe.

The food itself is appealing and presented attractively. Nothing is particularly exotic. The nutrition program is not here to experiment with designer food or fusion concepts. It's here to give kids what they find appealing while maintaining the required nutrition standards.

There is the usual parade of time-tested favorites: breaded chicken fillet patties, chili dogs, WG corn dogs, WG pizza, cheeseburgers, WG spaghetti with meat sauce and regional favorites like red beans with sausage and brown rice, beef shepherd's pie and chicken spaghetti. Sides are heavy on fresh vegetables and fruits (from fresh peach and cantaloupe to steamed squash and carrot sticks with dip) and whole grain sources like fluffy brown rice and blackeyed peas.