Live and Learn

Susan Johnson, school nutrition supervisor at 13,300-student Jackson-Madison County School System, has spent her entire 28-year foodservice career in this Tennessee school district. Johnson talked to FSD about the changes she’s seen in child nutrition during her career and some sage advice she’s received.

“When I started in 1982 we didn’t have any choice over what commodities we would receive. The system received an unbelievable amount of commodity butter. They couldn’t use it all before the summer so it was being stored in the schools’ coolers and freezers. The second day on the job, the maintenance supervisor called me and said that we had a real problem at one school. The freezer went out. The kitchen floor was a sea of butter. I called the state commodity officer and they said we had to buy the melted butter back in another type of dairy product. I picked ice cream. Later, it turned out that they were mistaken and I had to buy it back in butter. I went to my superintendent—I was 26—and explained to him what was going on. He asked me, ‘Did the children enjoy the ice cream?’ I said, yes, and he said then don’t worry about it. Buy back the butter. He told me in this job all kinds of things are going to pop up and you’ve got to learn when to hold them and learn when to fold them. That advice has really served me well.

There have been some tremendous changes since I started in 1982. When I first started, there were not any choices in the elementary lunch programs. I started a choice program in one elementary. We were able to grow the program. I also began centralized cycle menus. There were also no breakfast programs. I began with one and then grew the program. In 2003, I pitched the idea of breakfast in the classroom at a principals’ meeting. I didn’t have any takers. The next day I had one principal say he was interested. His participation jumped. Now we have 15 schools that offer breakfast in the classroom. Our breakfast participation has increased from 33% in 2003 to 56%.”