The Feeding of our Children: Griffin School Nutrition Past and Present

As Part of the Impact Speaker Series, sponsored by Impact Office Interiors, was held Tuesday, August 19, 2014, from 5:30—7:00 p.m.

Hosted by the University of Georgia Griffin Campus at the Stuckey Auditorium and was free and open to the public.

Volunteers including Misty Smith, Freida Maddox, Janice Buice, Joseph Walker (Spalding Collaborative), Vera McIntosh, Beth Mathis, Cebell Miller, and Cynthia Anderson packed bags for the Backpack Food for Kids Program

In 1948, General Mills captured the story of the nutritional education of East Griffin Elementary School in the video “The School That Learned to Eat.” This historic footage documented the intentional changes involving what students ate, where students ate, and how students ate.

On August 19th, a special viewing was held of this historic video as well as a presentation detailing how the nutritional condition of students in Spalding County Schools today compares to that of students in 1948. The importance of the availability of nutritional food to the educational success of students is as critical today as it was when identified in 1948. Food insecurity is not new in Spalding County but programs like the Backpack Food for Kids Program are being implemented to help alleviate hunger among our children.

We thank all those who came out to this free, public event and heard the story of how we have fed and are feeding the children of Spalding County and what food is still needed to sustain this young generation.

Special Guest Speakers included:

  • Jeff Jordan, Professor at UGA Griffin
  • Jack Sutton, former East Griffin Elementary School alumnus
  • Joseph Walker, Executive Director of the Spalding Collaborative
  • Aveory Allen, Atkinson Elementary Principal
  • Gloria Brown, Moore Elementary Principal
  • Evelyn Jones, Anne Street Elementary Principal
  • Laura Jordan, Jackson Road Elementary Principal