Some seven years ago, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver traveled to Huntington, West Virginia, on a mission: to save the residents of the so-called “fattest and unhealthiest” U.S. city from themselves.

Of course, it didn’t work out that way. Students were unhappy with the changes Oliver made to their schools’ cafeteria offerings. Rhonda McCoy, the food-service director for the county's schools, was left to pick up the pieces.

What happened next was extraordinary and the subject of a story published on The Huffington Post Highline. Joseph Erbentraut, a senior reporter covering food and water, spoke with Jane Black, the author of the story. 

What did you hope your reporting would highlight for readers?

I think this story is a demonstration of how precarious the work that people like Rhonda McCoy and others are doing can be. They’re always at the mercy of this larger and very politicized conversation about what school food should look like. I wanted to demonstrate how the food service directors and the school cooks who are often vilified are working hard in an absolutely crazy system that is a result of years of political debates and disagreements.

What surprised you over the course of your reporting?

I think a lot of the conversation about school food focuses on the foods that go on the tray and the nutrition guidelines. The debates about whether pizza is healthy or fries are healthy. That’s what I was focused on originally, because that is my background. But over the last couple of years talking to Rhonda, it became clear to me how important the program called CEP [community eligibility provision] was, and how it allowed her to feed more kids and give them better food at the same time.

How successful that program is, and how it is still a political target, is really shocking to me. If you look at the data, it has worked brilliantly. It made me realize that I and a lot of people are focused on something that makes a good story and a good headline, but that it may not be the thing making the difference between feeding kids well and not.

What do you think is the lesson that can be applied from Huntington to school cafeterias throughout the nation?

I think a key takeaway ― sadly, because nobody likes to hear this ― is that there’s no silver bullet. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It’s a lot of different things: It’s having a really smart person running a very important program. It’s being able to manage a complex operation. There is no one rule or bill or law we can pass that will fix this.

Anything you'd like to add?

One thing I hope that people will take away from the story is that we as a country need to decide or make some decisions about how important this is to us. Do we think the government should be responsible for feeding kids or not? In some ways, if we could in agree on what we want our kids to be eating, it would be easier for people like Rhonda to do their jobs.

This interview was edited to fit this newsletter. If you'd like to read more, Erbentraut spoke at length with Black over here.

Read the story.

Love,

Joe (and Nick and Sam)