Luncheon about visiting, vittles
Cave Spring Elementary’s Pinto Bean community feast is an annual tradition.
CAVE SPRING — The calls start right after Christmas. When is the Pinto Bean Luncheon?
Cave Spring Elementary School Principal Trina Self said Thursday’s luncheon was the place to be and is a tradition that keeps growing and bringing new faces to visit the school every year.
The school lunch staff prepare a Southern feast of pinto beans and ham, macaroni and cheese, turnip greens, cornbread, chow chow, tomatoes and onions.
Homemade desserts are available as well — ranging from key lime cake to banana pudding. The faculty and staff see it as a way to thank the community for supporting the school throughout the year.
While many of the diners are from the Cave
Spring area, the road from Rome to Cave Spring was heavily traveled at lunchtime, too, as people made the drive to join the crowd or to pick up some take-home plates.
“We pick up 12 plates to go for everyone in our office,” explained Joe Robinson of Good Shepherd Funeral Home. “I’ll get in trouble if we don’t get enough for everyone, especially the jalapeno cornbread and chow chow.”
Robinson said this was his second year coming to the luncheon.
“You can’t beat good home- cooked vittles,” said Robinson.
Wayne Coursey and his wife, Antonie Coursey, enjoyed the cuisine as well, they said.
“Pinto beans and onions, that’s a Southern delicacy,” said Wayne Coursey.
Visiting old friends is an important part of the event, too.
“I just like seeing everybody,” said Linda Kerr. “I grew up here and attended school here, so I get to see people I don’t see every day when I come.”
Kerr admitted she may have gotten into a little trouble once because of the luncheon.
“One year, before I retired from my job, I told them I had to take a long lunch so I could come to this,” she laughed. “Then the newspaper reporter took my picture while I was here and I was in the next day’s paper. Everyone at work saw it and I had to tell them, ‘ yep, that’s where I was.’”
The luncheon began at 11 a.m. Thursday, and by noon, the room had filled, emptied and refilled twice.
There was plenty of food to go around because the lunchroom staff had prepared 200 pounds of pinto beans, with 10 whole hams chopped up and added for flavor.
Sabrina Fortenberry, lunchroom manager, said she used 30 pounds of cornmeal to make the cornbread, sliced up 25 pounds of tomatoes and 20 pounds of onions and made 30 pounds of macaroni and cheese.
“I got here at 6 a. m. Thursday morning,” said Fortenberry. “You’ve got to get started early to get it right.”